4 killed in Illinois plane crash, officials confirm
(TRILLA, IL) — Four people from Wisconsin were killed on Saturday when their private, single-engine plane crashed in a field near an airport in rural Illinois after reportedly striking powerlines, authorities said.
The Cessna 180G aircraft crashed about 10:16 a.m. local time Saturday in the unincorporated community of Trilla, Illinois, southeast of Coles County Memorial Airport in nearby Mattoon, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Preliminary information, according to the NTSB, indicated that the plane struck powerlines before crashing.
All of the plane’s occupants were pronounced deceased at the scene, according to the Illinois State Police.
The Coles County Coroner on Sunday evening identified the two men and two women killed in the crash. They are Ross R. Nelson, 46; Raimi A. Rundle, 45; Courtney L. Morrow, 36; and Michael H. Morrow, 48.
All four crash victims were from Menominee, Wisconsin, about 45 miles northwest of Green Bay, according to the State Police.
“My whole house shook,” Kynnedi Goldstein, who lives near the crash site, told ABC News.
Goldstein shared video footage she took in the aftermath of the crash, showing smoke billowing from the wreckage, which was strewn across a field and a two-lane road.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by the NTSB, which sent a team to Trilla on Sunday. The Federal Aviation Administration, which also sent personnel to the crash scene, is assisting in the investigation, the agency said.
The NTSB said the investigation involves three primary areas: the pilot, the aircraft and the operating environment.
As part of the investigation, the NTSB said it will review flight track data, recordings of any air traffic control communications, aircraft maintenance records and weather reports from around the time of the crash.
The agency said it is also reviewing the pilot’s license, ratings and flight experience. The NTSB is also conducting a 72-hour background check on the pilot “to determine if there were any issues that could have affected the pilot’s ability to safely operate the flight.”
The agency said it expects to release a probable cause report on the crash in 12 to 24 months.
(WASHINGTON) — After having his security clearance revoked by President Donald Trump, high-profile whistleblower attorney Mark Zaid on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to have his security clearance restored — saying that it was revoked for “improper political retribution.”
“The Trump Administration is seeking to neutralize someone viewed as an adversarial threat,” the complaint, filed in Washington, D.C., stated.
In March, Trump issued a presidential memorandum that revoked the security clearances of more than a dozen individuals, including Zaid, former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton — a move the complaint says is “a dangerous, unconstitutional retaliation by the President of the United States against his perceived political enemies.”
In his memorandum, Trump wrote he had “determined that it is no longer in the national interest” for Zaid and others to have access to classified information.
Zaid, according to his complaint, has represented “whistleblowers in every administration” dating back to Bill Clinton, doing so “without regard to party politics” — and that the revocation of his clearance is now “undermining” his ability to fully represent his clients.
According to the complaint, Zaid has had access to classified information in some capacity for about three decades, since approximately 1995. His first “fully approved” clearance, according to the complaint, came in 2002 as part of ongoing litigation. He was granted a “secret” clearance, which he maintained for years, until he was increased during the first Trump administration to Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS-SCI) as part of a case he was handling for a DHS whistleblower. He was last “read out” of his security in 2024, though it was not fully processed until 2025.
“In summary, Mr. Zaid has been a practicing attorney for over thirty years and for most of his professional career he has maintained authorized access to classified information,” the complaint states. “Indeed, far from being a security risk, he has established himself and has been recognized by legal and non-legal entities as a leader in the legal community and in the national security field specifically.”
Zaid’s complaint says he has already suffered real-world harms as a result of Trump’s memo after it was “blindly implemented” by a number of agencies. In one instance, the complaint says Zaid was notified in an email from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s inspector general’s office that he was “denied access to a client’s classified complaint” because he no longer had a security clearance.
“In sum, Mr. Zaid currently represents multiple clients for whom he now cannot access relevant classified information as part of his effective and zealous representation,” the complaint states.
Attorneys for Zaid, including Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen, say in the complaint that they suspect Zaid “came onto President Trump’s radar” when he represented a whistleblower in 2019 who filed a complaint about Trump’s 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, leading to his first impeachment.
The complaint says the revocation is a violation of First and Fifth amendments, and asks a judge to declare the presidential memorandum unconstitutional, block any further implementation, rescind the revocation, and “Require the Defendants to conduct a name-clearing hearing.”
“No American should lose their livelihood, or be blocked as a lawyer from representing clients, because a president carries a grudge toward them or who they represent,” Zaid said in a statement. “This isn’t just about me. It’s about using security clearances as political weapons.”
(OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich.) — A possible mass shooting plot at a Michigan graduation ceremony was thwarted, authorities said, and police are searching for one of the suspects who remains at large.
The apparent plot was revealed after authorities responded to a fight that broke out during the Arts and Technology Academy of Pontiac graduation, which was held Tuesday at a business in Pontiac, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
“A person approached our deputies and gave them information that a family member had told them that they had seen on Snapchat a threat to shoot up this graduation ceremony,” Bouchard said at a news conference Friday.
Authorities kept investigating and recovered two loaded guns with high-capacity magazines from under cars in the parking lot, the sheriff said.
Law enforcement “probably prevented a mass shooting,” the sheriff said.
One suspect, 19-year-old Deahveon Shamar-James Whaley, has been arrested, Bouchard said. Authorities are searching for a second suspect, 20-year-old Jamarion Jaryante Hardiman, the sheriff said.
Hardiman and Whaley were not students at the K-12 charter school but were connected via “friends and relatives,” the sheriff said, and they appeared to have “ongoing disputes with individuals in the community.”
Hardiman and Whaley “have a history of being involved with weapons and violence,” he added.
Bouchard said he’s alarmed “how close it was, potentially, to being another mass shooting.”
Oakland County is home to Oxford High School, where teenager Ethan Crumbley carried out a mass shooting in 2021.
The sheriff urged the public to share information about threats of violence.
“If you see something, say something,” he said.
In this thwarted attack, “Someone saw that [Snapchat] post,” Bouchard said, but deputies “didn’t hear about it until after we had arrived on the scene” to respond to the fight.
Anyone who sees Hardiman should call 911, the sheriff said.
(NEW YORK) — The 9/11 health program that monitors and treats thousands of people exposed to toxic dust during the 2001 terrorist attack is under threat — again.
A wave of staffing cuts and agency turmoil has thrown the World Trade Center Health Program into crisis, disrupting a system that has provided life-saving care to tens of thousands of people for more than two decades.
Experts warn that cancer diagnoses could be delayed, mental health needs could go unmet and the federal government would break its promise to “never forget.”
“This isn’t about politics — it’s about humanity,” said John Feal, a former 9/11 responder and founder of the FealGood Foundation. “We’re not going away. We’re going to keep coming back until they do the right thing.”
At the center of the controversy is a series of staffing cuts within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the agency that certifies 9/11-related illnesses as valid and oversees the World Trade Center Health Program, which administers care to first responders and survivors of the 2001 terrorist attack in lower Manhattan.
Earlier this year, a 20% staffing cut to the World Trade Health Center Program led to the termination of 16 doctors and nurses, reducing the clinical team to 72, Feal explained.
After a bipartisan outcry, those positions were reinstated in February.
But in April, a second round of cuts eliminated another 16 staffers. Whether those cuts involved any of the reinstated individuals from the first cut is unknown, but they left the program roiling and once again undermined its ability to provide timely care.
In addition to the second round of cuts in April, Dr. John Howard, the longtime program leader, was also removed. He was then quickly reinstated after political pressure.
More than 150,000 people are currently enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, up from about 76,000 in 2015.
The program had been preparing to grow its staff to meet rising demand. Instead, it is now struggling to function, according to Michael Barasch, a lawyer with Barasch & McGarry, a firm that represents thousands of 9/11 first responders and survivors.
Barasch told ABC News that patients are waiting six to eight months for appointments.
“This is a program with zero fraud that only does one thing: It saves lives,” Barasch said. “Mark my words: People will die without it.”
Toxic dust from the attacks contained a dangerous mix of chemicals and debris: asbestos, ground glass, benzene, chromium, lead. Those exposed — first responders, recovery workers, office staff, students, residents — potentially face higher rates of at least 69 cancers, as well as respiratory disease and post-traumatic stress.
“If he had it in his lungs, so does everybody else,” Barasch said, referring to NYPD Detective James Zadroga, whose death at age 34 in 2006 was linked to inhaling the hazardous air. “So we’re all ticking time bombs.”
The World Trade Center Health Program was established through the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which was permanently reauthorized in 2015.
But funding projections failed to account for medical inflation or growing enrollment. A bipartisan bill known as HR 1410 would fix the shortfall, but it remains stalled in Congress.
Feal said he thought the system isn’t just overwhelmed — it’s collapsing.
“We’ve built a program that saves lives and gives people dignity,” he said. “Letting it fall apart now dishonors everyone who ran toward danger that day.”
Barasch noted that many lawmakers — especially those outside of New York — may not realize the scope of the damage or how many of their own constituents are affected.
“People in all 50 states are enrolled in the program,” he said. “Thousands of them no longer live near the original attack sites. They need care where they are.” He urged everyone to call their senators and representatives and remind them of the promise made to the 9/11 community.
In meetings on Capitol Hill with lawmakers this week, Feal said he and other advocates seem to have found a sympathetic audience. Even so, he remains skeptical: “They listen — but will they act? That’s the question.”
An HHS spokesperson told ABC News in an email: “The World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program’s Clinical Centers of Excellence and Nationwide Provider Network are continuing to provide services to program members at this time. The program continues to accept and review new enrollment applications and certification requests.”
