(NEW YORK) — A winter storm has pummeled the Midwest and the Northeast with sleet, freezing rain and snow, leaving dangerous travel conditions for millions.
In Cleveland, cars, trees and power lines have been coated in sheets of ice, and in Kansas, the icy roads were blamed for car accidents.
The ice targeted Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia overnight as the storm moved east.
Snow and sleet reached New York City early Thursday morning, causing a treacherous commute during rush hour.
“Avoid unnecessary travel, and if you must drive, slow down, use caution and give plows and spreaders room to work,” the New Jersey Department of Transportation said.
The icy mix is expected to change to rain later in the morning from New York City to Philadelphia to D.C.
New England, including Boston, will see snow and an icy mix into the afternoon.
Another storm with snow, sleet and freezing rain is forecast for the Midwest and the Northeast this weekend.
A winter storm watch already has been issued for parts of Upper Midwest, including Minneapolis, where up to 8 inches of snow is possible.
This new storm will then track east, reaching the Interstate 95 corridor Saturday evening into Sunday morning with snow, ice and rain.
(SHILOH, Ala.) — At a recent church service in Cleveland, a group of visitors from a rural Alabama community nearly 900 miles away, including pastor and business owner Timothy Williams, joined congregants in singing the spiritual “I Don’t Mind Waiting.”
Williams has grown used to waiting.
After six years of frequent flooding, two presidential administrations and numerous reassurances from top officials, homeowners like Williams who live in the majority-Black Shiloh community say they are still waiting for state and federal agencies to make them whole.
Now, with the Biden administration ending Monday, they feel they are running out of time.
“The longer they put us on hold, things are getting worse and worse,” said Williams, who has been advocating for Shiloh since 2018, after community members say a project by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to widen an adjacent highway led to flooding on their properties.
When the state denied responsibility for the flooding, community leaders turned to the federal government for help. In September 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration opened an investigation into their concerns.
The administration says it aims to complete investigations within six months, but after a year with no resolution, Shiloh residents focused their efforts on reaching the top transportation official in America: U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Shiloh residents became hopeful last spring when Buttigieg traveled to their community to see how runoff from the expanded highway drained onto their properties. He toured the historic community, listening to residents and telling them Washington would make things right.
The people of Shiloh say they were optimistic about what was to come, but when the federal investigation came to a close in October — more than two years after it began — the resulting Voluntary Resolution Agreement with ALDOT fell short of their expectations.
The deal required the state to mitigate future flooding in Shiloh, but it did not address existing property damage. It also did not assign blame for the flooding, raising questions as to whether any government entity is liable for compensating the residents for their losses.
“We are closely coordinating with the Federal Highway Administration on our efforts to follow through with the terms of the Voluntary Resolution Agreement,” ALDOT spokesperson Tony Harris told ABC News.
On the brink of yet another administration change, Williams wants Buttigieg to commit more resources to Shiloh in his final days in office.
“We want him to give us a binding written agreement that will cover the damages of the people’s homes and their properties and make the people whole,” Williams said. “That’s all we’re asking him to do and he can do that.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation, however, said the secretary cannot meet this demand.
“Congress has not authorized any programs or funding for DOT that can provide emergency relief directly to communities experiencing hardship, so this whole-of-government approach is critical to help the Shiloh community access federal assistance that is not available through DOT alone,” the spokesperson told ABC News.
The flooding in Shiloh has consequences ranging from transportation to housing to environment, spanning the jurisdictions of a web of federal agencies. Some of these departments are involved in a task force led by the U.S. Transportation Department to identify resources available for Shiloh, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson told ABC News.
“EPA shared all funding opportunities and technical assistance available to the community,” the spokesperson wrote, adding that Shiloh community members applied for an EPA grant program in November.
Since the Voluntary Resolution Agreement did not assign liability for the flooding – the responsibility for finding government funds to fix the flood damage has largely fallen to the Shiloh community members. They now say they’ve been wading through red tape while their homes fill with water.
With the clock ticking toward another Trump administration, Shiloh community leaders are worried they’ll be left behind. They aren’t waiting for federal agencies to come to them anymore.
In December, Williams and his daughters traveled from Alabama to Ohio, where Buttigieg was scheduled to speak before the City Club of Cleveland.
In his address, Buttigieg discussed the accomplishments of his administration, including tackling infrastructure inequities in vulnerable communities.
“Many communities had transportation projects done to them rather than with them, often because they lacked the wealth or political power to resist or reshape them,” Buttigieg said.
Listening closely alongside the Williams family were some of their supporters: Shiloh-area native Dr. Robert Bullard, known as the “father of environmental justice” for his pioneering research, and representatives from the Sierra Club.
“The point of transportation is to connect, and yet there were so many places where transportation functioned to divide, sometimes contributing to racial and economic divisions,” Buttigieg told the audience. “We can do something about it, and we are.” In the case of Shiloh, however, what exactly can be done and who should do it remains unclear. All the while, the flooding continues.
When asked by ABC News if he would meet with the Shiloh families who’d come to Cleveland, Buttigieg said he “would want to take that up directly with them.”
“We’ll continue to do everything we can, both within and beyond any kind of formal and official steps, to try to support that community because I’ll never forget what they’re going through,” Buttigieg said.
After they were denied another meeting with the secretary, Williams and Bullard put together a petition with roughly 5,000 signatures demanding a binding agreement to cover damage to residents’ properties.
On Tuesday, the group traveled another 900 miles, heading to Washington to deliver their petition directly to the U.S. Transportation Department before Buttigieg’s term ends.
“We want to see a victory,” Bullard said. “How this community overcame all odds and got the resources from the federal government to make them whole.”
Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous joined the group to call for justice in Shiloh.
“Their community’s been turned into a drainage ditch by the Alabama Department of Transportation with U.S. Department of Transportation dollars,” Jealous said.
After relentless flooding and tireless advocacy, Shiloh’s 150-year legacy still hangs in the balance. While Washington politics churn on, their homes continue to sink and runoff drowns their generational wealth. Bullard stressed that there is still time for Washington to act.
“It’s already been two administrations that have allowed this to happen,” Bullard said. “This should not — and must not — bleed into a third administration.”
ABC News Senior National Correspondent Steve Osunsami contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — All raw whole milk and cream products produced by Raw Farm LLC that are still on store shelves are being voluntarily recalled following multiple detections of bird flu virus in the company’s milk and dairy supply within the past week, according to California public health officials.
Officials have also placed the farm under quarantine and suspended any new distribution of its raw milk, cream, kefir, butter, and cheese products produced on or after Nov. 27.
“Californians are strongly encouraged not to consume any raw milk or cream products in their possession or still on store shelves,” the California Department of Public Health said in a statement on Tuesday. “Pasteurized milk remains safe to drink.”
No human bird flu cases associated with the product have been confirmed to date, officials said. Though, bird flu virus levels have been found at high levels in raw milk and health officials believe raw milk is infectious to humans.
“We are working towards resolving this political issue while being cooperative with our government regulatory agencies,” Raw Milk, which is based in Fresno, said in statement posted on its website.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has previously warned of the dangers of drinking raw milk, which does not undergo pasteurization — a process that kills viruses and bacteria.
“Raw milk is milk from cows, sheep, or goats that has not been pasteurized to kill harmful bacteria,” according to the FDA. “This raw, unpasteurized milk can carry dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria, which are responsible for causing numerous foodborne illnesses.”
Luigi Mangione is seen inside the police station in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Dec. 9, 2024/Obtained by ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is almost certain to waive extradition from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested a week ago, sources told ABC News.
He could waive extradition to New York as early as Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday.
Mangione remains in custody at a Pennsylvania state prison.
In Pennsylvania, Mangione faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun. In New York, he faces charges including second-degree murder.
Mangione has hired Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former member of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, as his lawyer in New York.
Mangione was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9 after nearly one week on the run. He’s accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4 as the CEO headed to an investors conference.
Sources said writings police seized from Mangione suggest he was fixated on UnitedHealthcare for months and gradually developed a plan to kill the CEO.
Among the writings recovered from Mangione was a passage that allegedly said, “What do you do? You whack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention,” according to law enforcement officials.
Mangione nor his parents received insurance through UnitedHealthcare, the company said.
FBI agents and NYPD detectives spoke to Mangione’s mother the day before his Dec. 9 arrest after San Francisco police informed them she had filed a missing persons report and Mangione’s photo seemed to match the suspect photo, law enforcement sources told ABC News. Mangione’s mother told the New York investigators that the person in the widely shared surveillance images could be her 26-year-old son, sources said.
