Flash flood, thunderstorm alerts in effect for California with heavy rain expected to last days
Life-threatening flood threat. ABC News
(LOS ANGELES) — More than 41 million Americans across California, southern Nevada and northwest Arizona are under flood watches on Wednesday amid a rare, high risk for excessive rainfall and flooding.
This includes major metros like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, California, San Diego and Las Vegas.
A “High Risk for excessive rainfall” is in place for Los Angeles, including I-10 from San Bernardino to Santa Monica and areas north like Highway 101 to Thousand Oaks, I-5 to Burbank, Santa Clarita, and up to Pyramid Lake and all of I-210. Travel on these roads is not recommended as they may become flooded, officials said. Low-lying neighborhoods in these areas could also become flooded, forecasts show.
Being under a “High Risk” designation is rare. This risk is only issued about 4% of days, accounting for one-third of all flood-related fatalities and 80% of all flood-related damages, according to the NWS.
Potential flooding impacts include the threat of significant and widespread urban roadway flooding, a high risk of major rock/mudslides, and rapid rises in creeks, streams and rivers which will likely lead to swift water rescues.
The recent burn scars will be at risk of possibly damaging debris flows. These flooding impacts will likely lead to significant travel delays and road closures during the busy holiday travel period.
Winds are forecast to gust 40 to 50 mph across the area, potentially leading to power outages on Wednesday, according to forecasts. Thunderstorms are also possible.
The heaviest rain is expected on Wednesday morning and afternoon. Rainfall rates of 1 inch per hour or greater are expected.
By 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. PT, the rain will be coming to a brief end before more rain arrives overnight.
Additional rounds of rain are expected on Thursday and Friday, and the flood threat along with mudslides and landslide risks will continue each day as well.
A memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults murdered on May 24, 2022 during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is seen on January 06, 2026 in Uvalde, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — As soon as Wednesday afternoon, a Texas jury will begin deliberating whether a law enforcement officer should be held criminally responsible for failing to act in the face of one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.
After nine days of testimony, prosecutors and defense lawyers in the trial of former Uvalde schools police officer Adrian Gonzales are scheduled to deliver their closing arguments in a Corpus Christi courtroom on Wednesday morning. Deliberations could begin as early as Wednesday afternoon.
At issue is whether Gonzales — one of the first officers to arrive at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022 — ignored his training and endangered dozens of students when he responded to the shooting.
Prosecutors allege he “intentionally, knowingly, recklessly and with criminal negligence” put children in danger by failing to “engage, distract, and delay the shooter” in the critical first minutes of the shooting. If convicted on all 29 counts, Gonzales could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Nineteen students and two teachers died in the shooting nearly four years ago, with police officers waiting 77 minutes to confront the gunman as he was holed up inside a double classroom with students and teachers. While the shooting response has been the subject of hearings and investigations, the case against Gonzales marks the first criminal trial related to the shooting and the delayed police response.
What is he charged with? Gonzales was charged with 29 felony counts of abandoning/endangering children – one count for each of the 19 students who died in the shooting and the 10 children who survived in classroom 112.
Each count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison, and Gonzales could spend the rest of his life in prison if he is convicted. While juries in Texas sometimes determine criminal sentences, Gonzales has opted to be sentenced by Judge Sid Harle if he is convicted.
What happened to the police chief’s case? Along with Gonzales, prosecutors also charged former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the scene commander during the Robb shooting. His case has been indefinitely delayed due to a pending civil lawsuit involving the tactical unit that ultimately breached the classroom and killed the shooter.
Why is the trial in Corpus Christi? Judge Sid Harle began overseeing the case after a local judge in Uvalde recused themselves from the matter.
Taking place 200 miles from Uvalde, the trial is being held in a Corpus Christi courtroom after Gonzales’ attorneys successfully argued he would be unable to have a fair trial in the county where the shooting took place.
Who is in the jury? While emotions flared during jury selection — with some now-disqualified jurors vocally criticizing the police response to cheers from other jurors — Harle was able to seat a jury in less than a day.
The jury and alternates included 11 women and five men, though one of the male jurors was excused last week due to a family emergency.
Are there any comparable cases? According to Phil Stinson — a professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who maintains a database of police officers who have been arrested — the case against Gonzales is uncommon but not unprecedented.
Prosecutors in Florida attempted to similarly charge a law enforcement officer for his response to the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen were killed when a gunman opened fire that day, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland.
A jury in 2023 acquitted Scot Peterson, a former Broward County sheriff’s deputy, after he was charged with child neglect and culpable negligence for his alleged inaction following the shooting.
How did prosecutors approach the case? Prosecutors called three dozen witnesses — including investigators, teachers, and the families of victims — over nine days of testimony to argue that Gonzales missed a critical opportunity to stop the shooter before he entered Robb Elementary. They allege he was one of the first to respond to the shooter, was explicitly told the location of the gunman before he entered the school but failed to act.
“I told him that he needed to get stopped before he went into the fourth-grade building. We needed to stop him,” teaching aide Melodye Flores testified.
“And what did he say?” prosecutor Bill Turner asked.
“He, just, nothing,” Flores said.
According to a Texas Ranger who testified for prosecutors, Gonzales had more than a minute to stop the shooter before he entered the school, and the gunman was able to fire more than a hundred rounds during a two-minute period while Gonzales was standing outside Robb Elementary.
How did defense lawyers approach the case? Defense lawyers spent less than three hours on Tuesday calling two witnesses before resting their case. Gonzales declined to testify in his own defense.
His lawyers have argued that Gonzales not only followed his training that day but also highlighted that other officers had similar — if not better — opportunities to stop the shooter.
They accused prosecutors of “Monday-morning quarterbacking” Gonzales’ actions that day and argued he acted appropriately based on the limited information he had in the moment. They also highlighted that Gonzales attempted to enter the building with other officers but was directed by his commanding officer to retreat to call in for SWAT support.
Ryan Wedding of Canada competes in the qualifying round of the men’s parallel giant slalom snowboarding event during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games at the Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah, Feb. 14, 2002. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Ryan Wedding, the former Olympic snowboarder investigators said has been leading a major drug ring, has been arrested, U.S. officials announced Friday.
The 44-year-old Canadian has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted list in connection with indictments that allege he is responsible for trafficking “multi-ton quantities of cocaine” from Colombia and connected with several murders for hire in Canada and Mexico.
“At my direction, Department of Justice agents @FBI have apprehended yet another member of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List: Ryan Wedding, the onetime Olympian snowboarder-turned alleged violent cocaine kingpin,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an X post. “Wedding was flown to the United States where he will face justice.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said Wedding was taken into custody Thursday night in Mexico, where he is believed to have been hiding for over a decade.
Wedding allegedly ran a transnational drug trafficking operation that “routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California to the United States and Canada — as a member of the Sinaloa Cartel,” Patel said.
Wedding was previously indicted in Los Angeles federal court on multiple federal charges, including running a continuing criminal enterprise, committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and assorted drug crimes.
A superseding indictment was filed in November, alleging that Wedding ordered the killing of a witness who was set to testify against him in a federal drug trafficking case, according to the Justice Department.
The U.S. Department of State was offering a $15 million reward for information regarding Wedding.
Prior to starting his alleged criminal enterprise, Wedding, whose alleged aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant” and “Public Enemy,” was a professional snowboarder and competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
He is also facing similar charges in Canada, according to Canadian authorities.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) seal on the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) building in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Justice Department officials said in a letter submitted to two federal judges Thursday that they are making “substantial progress” reviewing items related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — but gave no indication when additional material would be released.
The letter said “over five hundred” federal prosecutors and staff members from the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department’s criminal division are reviewing and redacting millions of pages from the investigations into Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
The review has found “substantial” duplication in various files, so the estimated number of documents is “in flux,” the letter said.
“Due to the scope of this effort, platform operations require around-the-clock attention and technical assistance to resolve inevitable glitches due to the sheer volume of materials,” said the letter, which is signed by Jay Clayton, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Clayton said prosecutors are working with victims and attorneys for victims to redact identifying information, even if, in some cases, that information was previously public.
“Following a process of conferring with victims and victim counsel about this issue, the Department has confirmed that, to the extent any victim requests redaction of personally identifying information of a document in the DOJ Epstein Library, the Department will redact that victim identifying information even if the document is (or was) otherwise available on a public court docket,” the letter said.
The DOJ faced a Dec. 19 deadline for the release of all remaining Epstein files after Congress in November passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act following blowback the Trump administration received seeking the release of materials related to their probe of Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
Materials released to date include a trove of photographs and court records, including a complaint to the FBI about Epstein that was filed years before he was first investigated for child sex abuse, and documents containing previously unknown details about plans for Epstein’s 2019 arrest — but the files have yet to show evidence of wrongdoing on the part of famous, powerful men, against the expectations of many of those who pushed for the files’ release.
