2 storms to bring some of the highest snow totals of season to major cities
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(NEW YORK) — Two major winter storms are bearing down on the U.S. this week and are expected to bring some of the highest snow totals of the season for cities including Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The first storm, which spans from Colorado to Delaware, will hit Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning.
By 7 a.m. ET Tuesday, heavy rain is expected from Dallas to Nashville, Tennessee, while snow will be falling from Louisville, Kentucky, to Richmond, Virginia.
The snow will arrive in D.C. by noon on Tuesday and may last for over 12 hours. Some light snow may make it as far north as Philadelphia.
Four to 6 inches of snow is possible for the D.C. and Baltimore region.
Meanwhile, the heavy rain in the South may cause flash flooding.
By the time that first storm leaves the East Coast, the second storm will have already started in the Midwest.
At 7 a.m. ET Wednesday, widespread snow is expected from Colorado to Iowa to Missouri, while heavy rain will be falling from Houston to Louisiana.
In Chicago, the snow will begin around 9 a.m. Wednesday and may last for over 12 hours. Five to 9 inches of snow is possible in the Windy City.
Then, in the East, a mix of rain and freezing rain expected in D.C. and Philadelphia beginning after 5 p.m. Wednesday and continuing overnight.
In New York City and Boston, the snow is forecast to start Wednesday night and then change to rain overnight.
Both storms combined will result in hefty snow totals in the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic, and potentially flooding rain for a wide swath of the South.
(NEW YORK) — In its first note of the day, the jury in Daniel Penny’s manslaughter and negligent homicide trial reported that it is “unable to come to a unanimous vote” on whether Penny committed second-degree manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man, on the New York City subway.
“We the jury request instructions from Judge Wiley. At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on court one,” the note said.
Since the jury got the case on Tuesday, they have deliberated for more than 18 hours.
Penny, a 25-year-old former Marine, put Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, in a six-minute-long chokehold after Neely boarded a subway car acting erratically, according to police. Witnesses described Neely yelling and moving erratically, with Penny’s attorneys calling Neely “insanely threatening” when Penny put Neely in a chokehold.
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.
Penny pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and negligent homicide charges.
The verdict form asks the jury to decide the first count – second-degree manslaughter – before potentially moving to the second count of criminally negligent homicide. Only if it finds Penny not guilty on the first count, can it consider the second count of criminally negligent homicide.
Judge Maxwell Wiley proposed giving the jury an Allen charge, encouraging them to continue deliberating despite the deadlock. He is giving the lawyers time to consider the next steps.
“It would be a crazy result to have a hung jury just because they can’t move on to the second count?” prosecutor Dafna Yoran said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will order a “national energy emergency” and issue a “presidential memorandum on inflation” as part of a slew of executive actions on his first day in office, incoming White House officials told reporters Monday morning.
Among the actions described by the official includes orders related to transgender Americans, as well as orders aimed at the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies.
Trump and his advisers have also prepared an executive order directing the incoming attorney general and the heads of all departments and agencies to review law enforcement conduct over the last four years, multiple sources familiar with the matter said.
That order — which advisers are calling “ending weaponization in the federal government” — doesn’t explicitly direct any criminal investigations, but asks for a review of law enforcement activity and actions taken by the intelligence community over the course of Joe Biden’s presidency.
It’s not clear if Trump will sign that order on Monday, but it’s a sign that Trump’s administration plans to “investigate the investigators,” as he has previously indicated he would.
Economic actions
As part of Trump’s executive actions that are expected to be signed “as soon as possible,” officials said Trump will “put an end to the [Biden administration’s] electric vehicle mandate.” Another order will focus solely on Alaska, which officials said has “an incredible abundance of natural resources.”
Officials said these moves were not only intended to spur the economy and bring down costs, but also “strengthen our nation’s national security,” citing the impending “AI race with China.”
The primary order Trump is expected to sign Monday will focus on “unleashing” American energy, which officials said would emphasize “cutting the red tape and the burdens and regulations that have held back our economy, have held back investments, job creation and natural resource production.”
The national energy emergency Trump expects to sign will “unlock a variety of different authorities that will enable our nation to quickly build again, to produce more natural resources, to create jobs, to create prosperity and to strengthen our nation’s national security,” officials said.
Officials did not share details on the presidential memorandum to address inflation, saying only that it would be an “all-of-government approach to bringing down costs for all American citizens.”
Drilling reached record highs during the Biden administration — but Biden he also took executive actions to ban future offshore oil and natural gas drilling on America’s East and West coasts, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Bering Sea.
Transgender actions
Incoming Trump White House officials outlined a series of first-day executive actions that they described as efforts to “restore sanity,” including executive orders declaring that the U.S. government will only recognize a person’s gender assigned at birth, prohibiting federal funds from being used in programs that acknowledge people who identify as transgender.
Among the most tangible changes Americans might see is a change to passports, rescinding a rule under Biden that allowed Americans to mark “X” as their gender marker on their U.S. passport applications.
Trump also plans to rescind rules set by Biden that withheld federal money from schools, including colleges, unless they followed certain rules to protect trans students from harassment.
Entities that receive federal dollars like prisons and shelters also would have to designate “single sex” spaces, officials said, assigning people to certain areas based on their gender assigned at birth.
In announcing the changes, which could have sweeping implications, officials took few questions from reporters and did not provide specifics.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These are sexes that are not changeable, and they are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” one official said.
DEI actions
The incoming official said orders related to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the federal government are intended to create “equal treatment” and end DEI in the federal government.
Saying it was “very fitting” for the orders to be coming on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the official said orders will ask for the Office of Management and Budget and The U.S. Office of Personnel Management to coordinate with the various agencies to “terminate” all DEI programs in the agency, including positions that have been renamed.
This also includes environmental justice programs, equity related grants, equity action plans, and equity initiatives, according to the official.
There will also be a monthly meeting planned between members of the Department of Justice and Deputy Secretary of Trump admin agencies to assess any other DEI programs that officials plan to dismantle further, the official said.
Specific programs the orders will look to end include the Federal Aviation Administration recruiting “individuals who suffer from severe intellectual disabilities” and the USDA spending a billion dollars on environmental justice.
While the action does not address any private companies’ use of DEI programs, the incoming Trump official, when asked, said to “wait and see” regarding further action regarding private companies.
“Private business should wait and see. We have more actions on DEI very soon,” the official said.
Iincoming Trump White House officials did not share the specific text of Trump’s planned executive orders. They will be circulated to the press once they are signed by the president, officials said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WILMINGTON, Del.) — Two days after President Joe Biden issued a blanket pardon to his son Hunter Biden, the younger Biden’s federal gun case in Delaware was terminated Tuesday by the judge overseeing the case.
“In the absence of binding precedent” for a case that had yet to reach sentencing, “all proceedings in this case are hereby terminated,” U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika wrote in a brief docket entry Tuesday.
In a court filing Monday, prosecutors had urged Noreika to terminate the case instead of dismissing the indictment, in order to allow the record of the case to continue to exist.
Prosecutors in special counsel David Weiss’ office, who brought both the gun case and separate tax-related charges against Hunter Biden, on Monday made a similar filing to the federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case in California.
President Biden on Sunday issued a blanket pardoned to his son, who earlier this year was convicted on federal gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax-related charges, and was scheduled to be sentenced in both cases later this month.
