(NEW YORK) — The hottest weather of the season is spreading across the eastern half of the U.S. — with cities in the Northeast in the bull’s-eye on Wednesday — after baking the Midwest with extreme temperatures early in the week.
Chicago’s actual temperature hit 99 degrees on Tuesday, breaking the city’s daily record of 97 degrees. The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — soared to a scorching 115 degrees in Chicago on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, heat advisories are in effect from St. Louis, Missouri, to New York City. An excessive heat warning was issued in Philadelphia, where the heat index could hit 105 degrees.
The heat index is forecast to rise Wednesday to 106 degrees in Baltimore, Maryland; 103 in Washington, D.C.; and 97 in New York City.
The final tennis major of the year, the U.S. Open, which is underway in New York City, is operating under an “extreme weather policy,” with stadium roofs partially closed and extended breaks for players.
More than a dozen cities could shatter their record high temperatures, including Washington, D.C., if it reaches 100 degrees.
The extreme temperatures will end in the Northeast on Thursday, but will linger in the Ohio Valley and Tennessee Valley through Friday.
On Thursday, the heat index is forecast to climb to 104 degrees in Nashville, Tennessee, and Columbia, South Carolina; 102 degrees in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky; and 105 degrees in Greenville, Mississippi.
Record highs are possible Thursday in cities including Nashville and Louisville.
There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.
Last year marked the most heat-related deaths in the U.S. on record, according to JAMA, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association.
(NEW YORK) — The Bridge Fire straddling Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties was late Wednesday the largest wildfire in California, as authorities battled several large blazes aided by federal assistance and the state National Guard.
Some 2,500 structures are under threat from the Bridge Fire, Cal Fire said in its latest Wednesday night update, with the wildfire consuming 50,258 acres and at 0% containment.
The blaze — the cause of which is still undetermined — “continued to exhibit extreme fire behavior” through Wednesday, Cal Fire said, growing by 13,000 acres “mainly on the north and east flanks.”
At least 13 structures were destroyed in the Wrightwood area, it added, with power infrastructure also affected. Mountain High West and East Ski Resort were both affected by fire activity, while 20 homes in Mount Baldy and six wilderness cabins were destroyed.
Cal Fire warned that the expanding inferno may cause “spot fires” as it reaches areas of “receptive fuels with little to no fire history.”
The Bridge Fire is one of three large wildfires active in southern California. The Airport Fire — straddling Orange and Riverside counties — continued to burn on Wednesday, at 23,140 acres with 5% containment.
Though firefighting crews ensured minimal growth of the blaze through Wednesday — partially thanks to improved weather conditions — two civilians and 10 firefighters have so far been injured.
Evacuations orders are in place for 5,513 homes in Riverside County, and evacuation warnings in place for 9,581. Some 53,000 Riverside County residents are affected by the fire.
Gov. Gavin Newsom traveled to southern California on Wednesday, proclaiming a state of emergency in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties in response to the Bridge and Airport fires, his office said in a press release.
Newsom declared a state of emergency related to the Line Fire last weekend. That wildfire — east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County — was 18% contained as of Wednesday night, Cal Fire said, at 36,481 acres in size.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced from the affected area amid evacuation orders and warnings, with 65,600 structures threatened. One arson suspect was detained earlier this week on suspicion of starting the blaze.
Newsom visited the Line Fire command post in Highland on Wednesday.
“California is deploying every available resource to combat these devastating fires, and we’ll continue to work in lockstep with federal and local partners in this herculean effort,” Newsom said.
(ST LOUIS) — The $2 million Brianna Coppage says she made on OnlyFans in the last year proved a lot more lucrative than her day job as a high school teacher.
“You know what I need right now?” she says in an Instagram promo video. “Someone to take me to dinner, and then bring me home and have me for dessert.”
Before beginning to produce saucy videos in 2023, Coppage was a high school English teacher in suburban St. Louis, Missouri, and struggling to make ends meet after her husband was laid off.
“I made $42,000 per year,” she told Ashan Singh in an interview with “Nightline.” “Missouri is one of the lowest paying states in the country for teacher pay.”
She spotted a friend’s page on OnlyFans, the subscription-based video hosting service primarily associated with adult sexual content, and decided to give it a try.
“So at first, it was just like me and my husband. Just like boy-girl stuff, girl stuff, just me. But didn’t show my face at all,” she said of her early videos on the platform.
This added $5,000 a month to her income, she told “Nightline.” OnlyFans has more than 3 million creators, pulling in more than $1 billion a year, according to parent company Fenix International Limited’s 2022 earnings report
“We could pay our rent, but I also didn’t know how much of a risk there was going to be. So at the time it was me thinking, ‘Well, can they actually fire me for this?’ ”
Despite this concern, Coppage didn’t see her OnlyFans career as being at odds with her work as a teacher.
“I wasn’t doing anything illegal,” she said. “I’m there to teach reading and writing. Like I’m not there to instill their morals.”
She found out exactly what her employer thought after a school employee suspected that she was the woman hiding her face in one of her videos.
“And I was like, ‘I guess I need to tell the school,’ ” she said. “And then I just started, like, kind of panicking. And then someone called and reported it to the school.”
This resulted in Coppage going on leave from her teaching job, with global media picking up on the story.
“Seeing my name and my face in every news article around the world was like a huge shock to me,” she said of that moment.
Coppage quit shortly after her OnlyFans career became public knowledge. Despite this, she says she wouldn’t have a problem with someone teaching her children who had a similar side-hustle.
“As long as they were not, like, bringing it to school, talking to my kid about it,” she said.
Even though her career as a teacher was cut short, Coppage has embraced her life as an OnlyFans creator.
“I don’t have any regrets,” she said.
Coppage fits the traditional mold of an OnlyFans creator — young and female – but the site caters to a wide range of desires. Joe Gow is a 63-year-old whose porn work bumped up against his 16-year career as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
“We felt a little more liberated, if you will, and just thought ‘Let’s experiment and just see. Would anybody be interested in these videos?’ ” he told “Nightline.”
Gow has been making sexy videos with his wife Carmen Wilson for 10 years.
“So Joe was like, ‘Well, I don’t know how to ask you this, but how do you feel about porn?’ I’m like ‘Yeah, I’m OK with porn,’ ” Wilson said of the moment that kicked off this escapade.
They recorded about 20 videos over a decade, but didn’t make them public. That changed in late 2023, when they started uploading the videos to their “Sexy Happy Couple” OnlyFans account. When that failed to attract many subscribers, they tried using a free porn video hosting site.
“I didn’t expect it to get out in … kind of the explosive way that it did,” Wilson said. “And there are so many millions of videos to watch on the free sites, how would we even get noticed? Well we did, quickly.”
This prompted the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s legal team to send Gow an email asking about the video. He acknowledged that it was indeed he and Wilson, and he was terminated as chancellor.
“In recent days, we learned of specific conduct by Dr. Gow that has subjected the university to significant reputational harm. His actions were abhorrent,” it said in a statement at the time.
The incident was widely reported, with Gow telling outlets he believes he was punished for making porn videos with his wife.
“The media reaction was just stunning,” Gow said. “We’ve been in several British papers. We were in The Economic Times.”
Despite losing his job as chancellor, Gow believed his tenured teaching position in media studies would be safe.
“I wasn’t surprised when they said, ‘You can’t be chancellor,’ ” he said. “But ‘We’re going to go after you as a tenured faculty member.’ Wow. That’s new.”
At a hearing in June, Gow acknowledged making the videos.
“We did so on our own time, using our own money,” he said at the gathering.
Colleagues aired their beliefs that Gow had damaged the university’s reputation.
“We don’t want to be known as Porn U,” Interim Chancellor Betsy Morgan said at the hearing. “We want to be known for the quality of our academic programs.”
Ultimately, the university released a unanimous decision to dismiss him for unethical conduct.
Gow continues to fight, despite his health insurance benefit potentially hanging in the balance. He says if he walked away willingly he could keep the benefit — estimated to be worth $313,000. But by choosing to fight, he risks losing it.
(NEW YORK) — Two now-retired chiefs from the New York City Fire Department were arrested early Monday morning following a yearlong corruption investigation, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Retired Chief Brian Cordasco was arrested at home on Staten Island. Retired Chief Anthony Saccavino was arrested at home in Manhattan, the sources said.
Saccavino and Cordasco “repeatedly abused their positions of trust as high-ranking officials in the New York City Fire Department” by soliciting and accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribe payments in exchange for providing preferential treatment to certain individuals and companies, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in Manhattan federal court.
The two men were chiefs with the FDNY Bureau of Fire Prevention, which regulates the installation of fire safety and suppression systems in commercial and residential buildings. For nearly two years, the indictment said, Saccavino and Cordasco misused this authority for their own financial gain.
The two allegedly accepted $190,000 in bribes in exchange for expediting inspections, according to the indictment.
“Every member of the FDNY takes a sworn oath to conduct themselves honestly and ethically. Anything less will not be tolerated,” Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker, who took over the post after the chiefs had already retired, said in a statement. “The Department will fully cooperate with any ongoing investigations. Keeping New Yorkers safe remains our top priority.”
The FBI had searched their homes and offices earlier this year. he FDNY placed the chiefs on modified duty at the time. The New York City Department of Investigation searched FDNY headquarters as well.
The alleged scheme appears to have been discovered as an offshoot of the investigation into whether Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign took illegal money from Turkey in exchange for expediting the inspection of the new Turkish consulate.
A spokesperson for Adams said there is “no indication of any direct connection to anyone at City Hall.”
“City Hall became aware of this operation when we were notified by FDNY this morning,” the spokesperson said. “The FDNY continues to cooperate with DOI, and there is no indication of any direct connection to anyone at City Hall.”
Cordasco publicly complained about a so-called “City Hall List” of building projects that should be prioritized by FDNY inspectors, according to the indictment.