78-year-old woman dies from snake bites in Northern California: Sheriff
A captured rattlesnake is held with snake tongs by Jason Magee of OC Snake Removal in Mission Viejo on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
(MENDOCINO, Calif) — A 78-year-old woman has died from snake bites in Northern California, marking the third deadly snake bite victim in the state this year.
The woman was walking in a rural area in Redwood Valley on April 8 when she suffered three venomous snake bites, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said.
She was treated at a hospital but died on April 10, the sheriff’s office said.
While about 7,000 to 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes each year in the U.S., only about five of those people die from the bites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But this already marks the third deadly snake bite in California this year.
A 25-year-old man died after he was bitten by a rattlesnake while mountain biking in Irvine in Southern California in February, according to ABC Los Angeles station KABC. In March, a 46-year-old woman died after she was bitten by a rattlesnake while hiking at Southern California’s Wildwood Regional Park, KABC reported.
Peak rattlesnake season is just getting underway. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said bites are most common between April and October.
People wait in long TSA lines as the partial government shutdown continues for several weeks at airports like Chicago OâHare in Chicago, IL, United States on March 09, 2026 (Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Transportation Security Administration rolled out a new video at airports across the country Friday warning travelers of longer-than-usual wait times and staffing shortages, blaming Democrats for the partial government shutdown.
“You may be experiencing longer-than-average wait times due to the ongoing Democrat shutdown of TSA and the Department of Homeland Security,” the agency’s video message says.
At several airports nationwide, passengers have seen security wait times ranging from 20-30 minutes to as long as two hours at certain points, with travelers being advised to arrive at the airport early to allow adequate time for screening.
The roughly 30-second video message was released as TSA officers begin receiving their first $0 paycheck Friday, with the length of the shutdown nearing a month. The message also encourages travelers to show gratitude toward the TSA officers.
“The TSA Officers you are interacting with have shown up to work despite having missed paychecks. Please take the opportunity to thank the dedicated men and women of the TSA when you fly today,” the video message says.
Assaults on TSA officers have increased during the shutdown, Acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl told ABC.
“We’ve seen increases in assaults on our TSA officers which is always completely unacceptable, particularly unacceptable right now,” he said in an interview. “And so we just ask our passengers to please be respectful, thank them because they’re doing an incredibly difficult job under incredibly difficult circumstances.”
Stahl said the agency has “zero tolerance” for such behavior and works with the law enforcement authorities, including the Department of Justice, so those responsible face ramifications for their actions.
Though the rate of unscheduled absences by TSA officers has more than doubled since the shutdown began, Stahl said there are no safety concerns about TSA’s operations and that the agency’s focus remains on the impact to wait times.
“We don’t have any significant concerns about the integrity of the screening process right now as it stands, but again this is going to continue to worsen as the days continue and we’re really focused and really urge Senate Democrats to get back to the drawing table, get back to negotiating table, so we can get back to normal operations,” Stahl said.
A similar video featuring outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was rolled out by the agency during last year’s government shutdown. It received pushback from several major airports that refused to play it, citing the Hatch Act — a law that restricts the political activities of federal employees, as well as some state and local employees who are involved in or work in federally funded programs.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked a fourth vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to fund the agency without any reforms to ICE and CBP.
The package would have provided funding for the Department of Homeland Security through September. The agency has been shut down since Feb. 14.
Ahead of the vote, Democrats once again attempted to get support to fund other agencies, besides ICE and CBP, that are a part of DHS and that have been shut down. After their effort to fund all other agencies besides CBP and ICE was blocked Wednesday by Republicans, Democrats took a piecemeal approach Thursday, making individual requests to pass funding for TSA, CISA, Coast Guard and FEMA.
“What Republicans are saying is that we want to hold TSA, our airports, the protection of our coastline, the defense of this nation from cyberattacks and our response to emergencies hostage to their determination to continue to fund a law enforcement operation at ICE that is out of control,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during a speech on the floor as part of the Democratic effort to pass the bills to fund the individual agencies.
Republicans blocked each of those efforts, arguing that the whole of DHS should be funded.
“To my Democrat colleagues, if you have a bill that you want to defund ICE with, put it on the floor. I guarantee you it will get voted down because it is an extremely unpopular position. We are not going to let you get to that result by way of holding everyone else hostage. If you want to support all the agencies in this negotiated bill you have a way to do it,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mont., said.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this story.
Defendant Harrison Floyd attends a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump, February 13, 2024 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)
(MARYLAND) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday moved to dismiss a long-running assault case against Harrison Floyd, one of the 19 defendants charged with attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, after Floyd was accused of attacking two FBI agents in 2023 as they attempted to serve him with a subpoena in a related case.
The rare decision to drop the federal charge comes shortly after President Donald Trump in November issued a largely symbolic grant of clemency to individuals who worked on his behalf to challenge the results of the 2020 election.
In a court filing Wednesday, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Maryland informed the federal judge overseeing Floyd’s case that her office “moves to dismiss without prejudice the criminal complaint in the above-captioned case.” The judge approved the request soon afterward.
Prosecutors did not provide an explanation for the dismissal.
The charge stemmed from an incident in February 2023 when Floyd allegedly assaulted two FBI agents sent on behalf of then-special counsel Jack Smith to serve him with a subpoena related to Smith’s federal election subversion probe, according to court records. Floyd, a former Marine and mixed martial arts fighter, allegedly rushed at the agents and spit in their faces, the records show.
During the encounter, Floyd shouted profanities at the agents, including “YOU F—— PIECE OF S—!” and “WHO THE F— DO YOU THINK YOU ARE,” according to an affidavit. One of the agents showed Floyd his firearm in an effort to de-escalate the confrontation, according to the affidavit.
Several months after the alleged assault, prosecutors in Fulton Country, Georgia, brought racketeering charges against Floyd and 18 others, including Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Boris Epshteyn, John Eastman and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, for their alleged efforts to keep Trump in power despite his 2020 election loss.
Floyd, Trump and 13 others pleaded not guilty to all charges, while Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants. The case was ultimately dropped by prosecutor Pete Skandalakis, who took over after Fulton Country DA Fani Willis was disqualified from the case.
This past November, Trump issued all defendants a sweeping pardon, though the move was largely symbolic as the cases were brought at the state level and therefore fell outside the scope of presidential pardon power.
Floyd’s attorney, Carlos Salvado, told ABC News at the time that the language in Trump’s clemency order might also apply to Floyd’s otherwise unrelated federal assault charge.
Reached by ABC News on Wednesday, Salvado welcomed the dismissal. “I’m extremely happy for my client,” he said. “It’s a hell of a way to start 2026.”
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
A 56-year-old man has been arrested and charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Louisiana with supplying the weapon allegedly used by the suspect to kill seven of his children and a nephew in Shreveport, Louisiana, April 19, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Louisiana U.S. Attorney’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — A 56-year-old Louisiana man is facing federal charges for allegedly supplying an assault-style pistol that Shamar Elkins is suspected of using to allegedly kill eight children, including seven of his own, in a shooting in Shreveport over the weekend, officials said.
Charles Ford, of Shreveport, was arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and making false statements about the firearm to federal agents assisting in the investigation of Sunday’s massacre, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana. He faces a total of up to 20 years in prison if convicted of both charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Words fall short in the face of the acts Shamar Elkins perpetrated in Shreveport on April 19 – they are beyond comprehension or description,” U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller said in the statement announcing the charges.
Elkins, 31, died after leading police on a chase following the mass shooting in Shreveport that also left two women hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
Keller said investigators probing how Elkins obtained the weapon were led to Ford through information they obtained from the original purchaser of the weapon.
“Elkins’ death means that our community will never see him face justice,” Keller said. “Our hope, as we continue to investigate and prosecute this case alongside our law enforcement partners, is that holding the person whose gun Elkins used to perpetrate the crime accountable will give some small bit of solace to our Shreveport community.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
