Canyon Crest Fire, east of Los Angeles, prompts evacuations in Riverside, San Bernardino
San Bernardino County Fire/X
(LOS ANGELES) — The Canyon Crest Fire, which began Thanksgiving evening to the east of Los Angeles, has now reached 250 acres and has sparked evacuation warnings for residents living in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
The fire was 0% contained as of 6 a.m. local time, according to Cal Fire. Officials warn of the threat to life and property, calling for those who require additional time to evacuate and those with pets or livestock to leave immediately.
Areas under evacuation warnings include those north of California 60, East of County Village Road, South of the Riverside/San Bernardino County Line, and West of Sierra Avenue.
“A large augmentation of fire engines, crews, bulldozers and night flying-water dropping helicopters assisted in the suppression of the fire yesterday,” Cal Fire said in an online statement. “Resources worked on containment throughout the night in challenging terrain with light flashy fuels and east blowing winds.”
Emergency services from San Bernardino County Fire, Cal Fire, Riverside County Fire Department and the Bureau of Land Management are responding to the fire.
(TALLAHASSEE, FL) — Hurricane Milton strengthened to a Category 4 storm Monday morning as it takes aim at Florida’s west coast.
Landfall is expected as a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
Milton is closing in as Floridians are still recovering from the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Helene.
Milton expected to strengthen to Category 5 hurricane
Milton — currently a high-end Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds — is forecast to strengthen in a few hours to a Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds.
The storm will then weaken slightly as it approaches Florida on Wednesday night.
Milton is forecast to make landfall Wednesday night into Thursday morning as a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds.
Counties issue evacuation orders
Evacuation orders have been issued in counties along Florida’s west coast, including Charlotte, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota.
DeSantis: ‘Time is going to start running out very, very soon’
Fifty-one out of Florida’s 67 counties are under a state of emergency as the state braces for Hurricane Milton, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.
The governor urged residents to pay attention to evacuation orders.
“Time is going to start running out very, very soon,” he warned.
“Please, if you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate,” Kevin Guthrie, executive director of Florida Emergency Management, urged at a news conference.
“Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave.”
Waste removal trucks are urgently trying to get debris from Hurricane Helene off the streets of coastal communities before Milton hits.
DeSantis said debris will continue to be cleared until it’s no longer safe to do so.
Nearly 500 truckloads of debris from the barrier islands and Pinellas County have been moved to debris landfills in the last 24 hours, he said.
St. Pete-Clearwater, Tampa airports to close
The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, just outside of Tampa, Florida, will close at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and stay shut on Wednesday and Thursday.
“The airport is in a mandatory evacuation zone and is not a public shelter,” airport officials tweeted. “Prepare and stay safe.”
Tampa International Airport will suspend operations beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday and stay closed “until it can assess any damage after the storm,” airport officials said.
Milton strengthens to Category 4
Milton rapidly intensified to a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds Monday morning.
Within hours, Milton strengthened to a Category 2, then a Category 3 and then a Category 4.
Latest forecast: Landfall expected Wednesday night
Hurricane Milton is forecast to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday morning as a Category 3 hurricane. Landfall is expected anywhere between just north of Tampa to south of Sarasota.
A record-breaking storm surge of 8 to 12 feet is forecast for the storm surge-prone city of Tampa. This comes just after Hurricane Helene brought a record storm surge of 6 to 8 feet to Tampa Bay.
A hurricane watch was issued for Tampa Bay and Fort Myers, while a tropical storm watch is in effect from Apalachicola to Key West.
Water inundation from Fort Myers to Tampa could be higher than the record-breaking 7 feet recorded during Helene.
Flooding is also a threat since a separate storm has dumped rain on Florida for the last several days.
Milton strengthens to Category 3
Hurricane Milton early on Monday strengthened to a major Category 3 hurricane, with wind speeds of about 120 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
Milton strengthens to Category 2 hurricane
Hurricane Milton strengthened rapidly early Monday, with wind speeds climbing to 100 mph, making it a Category 2 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said.
A hurricane watch was issued for the area around Tampa Bay, along Florida’s western coast.
The storm, which is in the Gulf of Mexico, is forecast to become a major hurricane on Monday, meaning its winds are expected to reach or exceed 111 mph.
Landfall is expected on Wednesday night, with the storm expected to be a Category 3 storm with winds of about 125 mph.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
Milton forecast to be major hurricane
Hurricane Milton, which strengthened on Sunday into a Category 1 storm, is forecast to make landfall as a “major” hurricane on Florida’s west coast this week, the National Hurricane Center said.
“While it is too soon to specify the exact magnitude and location of the greatest impacts, there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning early Wednesday,” the center said in a late Sunday advisory.
(BOSTON, Mass.) — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who prosecutors said “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Judge Indira Talwani issued the sentence on Tuesday in Boston federal court.
Teixeira pleaded guilty in March to six counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose the maximum prison sentence of 200 months — more than 16 years — in prison.
“The harm the defendant caused to the national security from his disclosures of national defense information is extraordinary,” prosecutors said in a memorandum filed ahead of the sentencing hearing. “By posting intelligence products on the social media platform Discord to feed his own ego and impress his anonymous friends, Teixeira caused exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States. The scope of his betrayal is breathtaking.”
The defense sought the minimum sentence, citing Teixeira’s autism and ADHD. They also argued he did not intend to harm the country, only to educate his online friends about world events.
“Jack is still essentially a child — at the very least, a ‘youthful offender’ — who has his whole life in front of him,” defense attorneys Michael Bachrach and Brandan Kelley stated in a memorandum presented to the judge ahead of sentencing. “At 22 years old, a sentence of 132 months’ imprisonment would provide more than enough time for him to grow and mature; informed by his behavior as well as from his punishment.”
“With the support of his family and mental health treatment providers, Jack should have little trouble living a productive life inside prison and upon his eventual release,” the memorandum continued.
Teixeira is also currently negotiating a disposition to his parallel, but related, military prosecution, the memo said.
According to the signed plea agreement filed with the court, Teixeira agreed to plead guilty to all six counts charging him with willful retention and transmission of national defense information. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to charge him with additional counts under the Espionage Act.
Teixeira “accessed and printed hundreds of classified documents” and posted images of them on Discord prior to his arrest in April 2023, a prosecutor said during the plea hearing.
As part of his plea agreement, Teixeira must sit for a debrief with the Defense Department and the Justice Department and give back any sensitive materials that might remain in his possession.
Federal prosecutors have made clear Teixeira had no business peering at classified information because his low-level job did not require it.
“The defendant’s job was to troubleshoot computer workstations,” Assistant United States Attorney Jason Casey said during a March hearing.
Still, Casey said, Teixeira accessed “hundreds” of classified documents inside the secure facility where he worked and “purposefully removed classified documents and information despite admonishments from his superiors to stop.”
Teixeira has admitted in court to knowing the documents were marked classified.
Without mentioning specifics, federal prosecutors said Teixeira exposed information about the compromise by a foreign adversary of certain accounts belonging to a U.S. company and information about equipment the U.S. was sending to Ukraine, how it would be transferred and how it would be used upon receipt. Prosecutors said he also posted material about troop movements in Ukraine, a plot by a foreign adversary to attack U.S. forces abroad, and Western deliveries of supplies to the Ukrainian battlefield.
Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record, and had top secret security clearance beginning in 2021, according to the Department of Justice.
The Justice Department said he began posting classified documents online in January 2022.
Teixeira will also face a military court-martial on charges alleging he violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the U.S. Air Force.
The U.S. military reserves the right to separately prosecute a service member who has already been convicted in a federal court.
Shenghua Wen was allegedly moving items to North Korea by concealing them in shipping containers; FBI
(LONG BEACH, Calif.) — An undocumented Chinese national living in the U.S. has been charged with procuring and shipping guns, ammunition and electronics to North Korea, according to federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Shenghua Wen was allegedly moving items to North Korea by concealing them in shipping containers from Long Beach, California, through Hong Kong and then to North Korea.
Federal agents in August seized two devices from Wen’s home that he had allegedly planned to send to North Korea for its military use — a chemical threat identification device and a handheld broadband receiver, according to a criminal complaint.
In September, over 50,000 rounds of ammo were found in Wen’s vehicle that he allegedly admitted were heading to North Korea, the complaint says.
Wen entered the United States on a student visa in 2012 and never left, according to the complaint.
He allegedly met North Korean officials in China before he came to the U.S., the complaint alleges. He was then directed to procure goods on behalf of North Korea.
Being in the U.S. illegally, Wen knew he could not buy the goods so he allegedly used other people to purchase the guns through straw purchases, prosecutors say.
