Arctic blast to blanket much of US with below-freezing temperatures
Hyoung Chang/Denver Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans should prepare for an Arctic blast that will blanket much of the country in below-freezing temperatures over the next several days.
Frigid conditions are expected over a large swath of the contiguous U.S. in the aftermath of a powerful cold front moving through the East Coast on Wednesday, forecasts show.
Once the rain and wind has subsided, the icy conditions will extend east and south from the upper Midwest — reaching as far as Texas and Florida.
The cold air moving over the Great Lakes while they are still ice-free is expected to generate a lake effect snow event.
The National Weather Service has issued a lake effect snow warning for portions of northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York, where locally 2 feet to 3 feet of snow is possible, forecasts show.
A winter storm warning has also been issued across portions of Wisconsin and Michigan, where locally 1 foot to 2 feet of lake-effect snow is possible.
Chilly temperatures got an early start in the upper Midwest. On Wednesday morning, wind chills dipped to as low as -38 degrees in eastern North Dakota.
The arctic air mass will then move east and south, bringing the coldest air of the season from Texas to New York. A frost advisory has even been issued for parts of northern Florida, including Gainesville.
The frigid temperatures are expected to last through Friday and evening Saturday morning in some regions, including Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City and Atlanta.
The cold will begin to ease this weekend, first across the center of the country, then reaching the East Coast by Sunday and Monday.
Above average temperatures are favored across much of the country next week, according to the latest forecast from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
(GEORGIA) — Former President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner on Tuesday night in front of an all-female audience in Cummings, Georgia, where he addressed several issues aimed at appealing to women voters including the child tax credit, the economy and reproductive rights — calling himself the “father of IVF.”
Speaking in front of a friendly audience of more than 100 women of all ages, Trump attempted to court suburban women in Georgia’s Forsyth County — a reliably-red county where Democrats have made gains in recent years.
Recently, Trump has worked to connect with women voters — the largest voting bloc in the 2024 election — by suggesting they’ll be “safer” under a Trump administration, that he will be a “protector” of women and they “will no longer be thinking about abortion” if he wins the White House.
During the event, which aired Wednesday morning, Trump was asked about his positions on abortion access and in vitro fertilization — key voter issues after the Supreme Court overruled Roe vs. Wade in 2022. Trump himself often brags about his role in the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule the case that secured the constitutional right to abortion.
“Oh, I want to talk about IVF. I’m the father of IVF,” Trump blurted.
Sen. Katie Britt, who introduced the IVF Protection Act, explained IVF to the former president, according to Trump.
“Within about two minutes, I understood we’re totally in favor of IVF. I came out with a statement within an hour, a really powerful statement with some experts, really powerful,” he said, adding that “we really are the party for IVF. We want fertilization.”
Trump reiterated his position on abortion where he suggested he has turned the power back to the states.
“It’s back in the states, where they can have the vote of the people. It’s exactly where they want to be. Remember this, this issue has torn this country apart for 52 years. So we got it back in the states, we have a vote of the people, and it’s working its way through the system, and ultimately it’s going to do the right thing,” Trump said.
At one point, Trump suggested that some states have to redo their abortion laws, referencing rape, incest and exceptions.
“Actually called himself the ‘father of IVF’ and if what he meant is taking responsibility, then yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state. What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working towards growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk,” Harris told reporters.
Trump’s comment was also quickly picked up by women championing the abortion-rights movement such as EMILY’s List and Planned Parenthood Action Fund where they called it “deeply out of touch with the vast majority of the American people.”
“Let’s call this charade what it is: a last-ditch attempt to deceive voters,” said Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs List, calling it an “insult to women everywhere that he thinks they’ll fall for his bogus attempt to rebrand on abortion.”
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said Trump “cannot be trusted — not with our bodies, our lives, or our futures.”
Trump also doubled down on his rhetoric where he suggested to Maria Bartiromo on Fox News that “the bigger problem is the enemy from within” when answering a question on whether he thought the November election would be peaceful.
Trump’s comments in the previous week suggest that the military would handle his political adversaries if he became president. Faulkner played the video clip during the town hall, to which Trump replied, “if we have to.”
He continued, doubling down on his rhetoric, “I thought it was a nice presentation” and saying he wasn’t “unhinged” as Harris claimed during an Erie, Pennsylvania, rally earlier this week.
“It is the enemy from within, and they’re very dangerous,” Trump said to Faulkner.
At one point in the town hall, Faulkner described the Democrats’ prebuttal of the event, mentioning the family of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died of complications following her abortion in the state — with a ProPublica report saying her death was a direct result of the state’s six-week abortion ban.
Thurman’s family was on a press call with Sen. Raphael Warnock, and when Faulkner asked about that call, Trump — instead of acknowledging the Thurman family and Amber Thurman’s death — quipped that the Fox News town hall he was currently participating in would “get better ratings.”
(NEW YORK) — A dog in Florida has been rescued by a team of firefighters after falling 14 feet into a cave in the middle of a field, authorities said.
The incident occurred at approximately 7:05 p.m. Monday when officials from Marion County Fire Rescue in Ocala, Florida, received a call from a distressed dog owner reporting that his dog Bella had fallen into a 14-foot hole and he was unable to get her out, according to a statement from MCFR released on Monday detailing the incident.
“Marion Oaks Engine #24 arrived on scene at 7:08pm, finding Bella trapped in the hole,” authorities said. “Engine #24 Captain established command and requested our Technical Rescue Team on Tower #2 from Belleview Station #18.”
Rescuers were able to set up their rig successfully and a firefighter was subsequently lowered into the cave in an attempt to rescue Bella.
“Firefighters removed her from the cave and returned her safely to her owner,” MCFR said in their statement.
It is unclear if the cave was signposted, but Bella looked thrilled to be out of trouble in pictures released by the fire department.
“Amazing work to save this dog. God Bless you all,” said one person commenting on MCFR’s social media post announcing the rescue.
“MCFR, thank you for saving this angel,” said another commenter. “I will be forever grateful for guys like you. God bless.”
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — A jury on Friday found former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights during a fatal botched police raid, in a retrial of the federal case against him.
The guilty verdict came hours after the jury acquitted Hankison of a second count of violating the civil rights of three of Taylor’s neighbors, who lived in an adjacent apartment that was also struck by gunfire during the raid. After the partial verdict was delivered, jurors, who remained deadlocked on the count specifically related to Taylor, were instructed by the judge to continue deliberating.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on that count shortly before 9:30 p.m., according to Louisville ABC affiliate WHAS.
Family and friends of Taylor hugged each other and cheered after leaving court late Friday night.
Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, thanked prosecutors and jurors. “They stayed the course,” Palmer said of prosecutors, who retried the case after Hankison’s first federal trial ended in a mistrial last year when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision after deliberating for several days.
As deliberations this time around stretched late into the evening Friday, Palmer said she began to feel defeated. “The later it got, the harder it got, and I’m just glad to be on the other side,” she said.
“Now, I just want people to continue to say Breonna Taylor’s name,” her mother said.
Taylor was fatally shot during the March 2020 raid. The three officers fired dozens of rounds after her boyfriend fired one round at them, striking one of the officers.
Hankison fired 10 rounds through Taylor’s sliding glass door and window, which were covered with blinds and curtains, prosecutors said. Several of the rounds traveled into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment, where three people were at the time. None of the 10 rounds hit anyone.
Prosecutors argued Hankison’s use of force was unjustified, put people in danger and violated the civil rights of Taylor and her three neighbors. The indictment alleged Hankison deprived Taylor of the right to be free from unreasonable seizures and deprived her neighbors of the right to be free from the deprivation of liberty without due process of law.
Several witnesses, including Louisville’s current police chief, testified during the trial that the former officer violated Louisville police policy requiring officers to identify a target before firing, according to The Associated Press.
The defense argued during the trial that Hankison had joined a poorly planned raid and that he fired his weapon after believing someone was advancing toward the other officers, the AP reported.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
The plainclothes officers were serving a warrant searching for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, who they alleged was dealing drugs, when they broke down the door to her apartment. He was not at the residence, but her current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought someone was breaking into the home and fired one shot with a handgun, striking one of the officers in the leg. The three officers returned fire, shooting 32 bullets into the apartment.
The original indictment alleged Hankison had also violated Walker’s civil rights, though Walker was removed from the charge at the beginning of the retrial.
The retrial marked the third trial for Hankison, following the initial mistrial as well as a state trial in 2022, in which he was acquitted of multiple wanton endangerment charges.
Like in his previous trials, Hankison took the stand during the retrial, getting emotional at times over two days of testimony, according to WHAS, the ABC affiliate in Louisville covering the case in the courtroom.
Hankison told the jurors he was “trying to stay alive, [and] trying to keep my partners alive,” according to WHAS.
Hankison insisted “the only person my bullet could have struck was the shooter,” saying there was “zero risk” of hitting anyone outside the threat, according to WHAS.
He said that night was the first time he fired his gun in nearly 20 years of policing, according to the AP.
Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department for violating department procedure when he “wantonly and blindly” fired into the apartment.
The two other officers involved in the raid were not charged. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron called Taylor’s death a “tragedy” but said the two officers were justified in their use of force after having been fired upon by Walker.
