Criminal case against former assistant principal over shooting of teacher by student dismissed

(NEW YORK) — Former President Barack Obama reflected on the late Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “legacy of hope” on Friday, telling thousands who gathered to celebrate the late civil rights leader’s life in Chicago that “we are living in a time when it can be hard to hope.”

“I’d always be grateful for that legacy of hope,” Obama said.

“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think you think were possible,” Obama said.

“Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don’t even count at all,” Obama added.

“Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength; we see science and expertise denigrated while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards every single day, we see that and it’s hard to hope,” Obama said.

Obama joined former Presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, in delivering remarks at the House of Hope on Friday afternoon in Chicago to honor the legacy of the pioneering civil rights leader, politician and minister, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 86. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Jill Biden also attended the service, along with governors of the states of Illinois, Maryland, California and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Throughout his speech Obama characterized Jackson as a “messenger” of God, who repeatedly said, “send me,” as he faced and fought injustices thorough his life – from the Jim Crow South, to the modern civil rights movement.

“But this man Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path, his voice calls on each of us to be heralds of change,” Obama said. “How fortunate we were that Jesse Jackson answered that call, what a great debt we owe to him. May God bless, Rev. Jackson. May he rest in eternal peace.”

Friday’s public “Celebration of Life” service will be followed by a private service on Saturday morning in Chicago. The services come after thousands paid their respects to Jackson as he lay in honor at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago last week. He was also honored in his birth state of South Carolina on Monday, where he laid in state at the state house in Columbia.

“Jesse Jackson, Sr. marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights for all people. He traveled the world fighting economic and gender inequity. Until his last days, he fought for better healthcare, education, and peace in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, and beyond,” the Jackson family said in a statement on Wednesday. “I hope everyone who joins us to honor his legacy will also continue to champion these causes. That would be the best possible tribute and celebration they could offer.”

“Jesse Jackson, Sr. changed the United States — and the world,” the Jackson family said. “We are deeply honored to know there are people from every walk of life who want to join us to pay their respects.”

During his speech Obama reflected on Jackson’s historic campaigns for president in 1984 and 1988 and the rainbow coalition that he formed, forging the path forward for the Democratic Party. “He paved the road for so many others to follow,” Obama said. “And it was because of that path that he had laid, because of his courage, his audacity, that two decades later, a young black senator from Chicago, South Side would even be taken seriously as a candidate for the presidential nomination,” Obama added.

Harris also credited Jackson with forming the “rainbow coalition,” which became a defining force for the Democratic Party.

“Jackson reminded us that the many fights for freedom are interconnected,” she said.

“As he once said, when a barrier falls for one of the locked out, it opens the doors for all, and that is what he told me, and what he taught me, and how he inspired me,” she added.

Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton, who awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, said the late reverand made him a “better president.”

“We did not always agree, but I’ll tell you one thing, he made me a better president, because he was always pushing on things, and he knew that change came from the outside in, and sometimes from the inside out,” Clinton said. “so he knew how to keep pushing and nagging and wearing you up.”

Jackson died after experiencing health issues over the past several years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological disorder.

During his remarks on Friday, Biden called for Jackson’s memory to inspire Americans. “Let us be what Jesse called us to be, a margin of hope. Sometimes it’s the margin [that can] change people’s lives, to change community lives; lift up this country and light the path to being the nation Jesse always believed we can be,” he said.

Several of Jackson’s children also honored their father’s legacy during the service, reflecting on his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs and how he dedicated his career to advancing economic justice and building political power for Black Americans.

Jackson’s son Yusef Jackson, who is also President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition — the civil rights organization that Jackson founded in the 90s, said on Friday that his father’s legacy will continue in the work.

“This type of work does not pass by blood. It passes by spirit,” he said. “Thus it is in his name that we have committed ourselves, that the rainbow coalition will continue.”

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin, Tierra Cunningham and Jeana Fermi contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A slew of new civil lawsuits allege UPS and its partners failed their responsibility to make sure a plane they put in the air was safe to fly — and that negligence led to the fiery, fatal plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, last year that claimed the lives of 15 people.

The complaints allege the plane was faulty, the risks were known and yet it left the ground on a nonstop trip to Honolulu on Nov. 4, 2025 anyway.

The lawsuits — 15 in total — were filed in Jefferson Circuit Court on behalf of more than 100 survivors and victims of the crash as well as impacted businesses.

The lawsuits, which include several wrongful death claims, name a lengthy list of defendants, including UPS, Boeing, GE, Allianz insurance and the company that performed maintenance and repair on the plane.

Also named as a defendant: the estate of one of the plane’s pilots — Capt. Richard Wartenburg, who perished in the crash — who the lawsuits claim was “directly responsible for determining whether” the plane “was in a condition for safe flight.”

The lawsuits claim the defendants let a “catastrophic failure” occur.

In a statement, UPS said in a statement, “We remain deeply saddened by Flight 2976. Our focus continues to be on supporting those affected and working closely with the National Transportation Safety Board as the investigation continues.”

In a statement, Boeing said: “We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in this accident.”​

‘Huge ball of fire coming straight for us’
The new allegations come just on the heels of the crash’s six-month anniversary.

The UPS jet — a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 — lost its left engine and pylon shortly after taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport last November, crashing just seconds into the flight, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Exploding in a fireball, it slammed into an area scrapyard, Grade A Recycling.

“I wake up every day and have to kind of relive it and bring myself back to reality,” said Ashley Muse, who was there that day, and is a plaintiff in one of the suits.

“All you could see was a huge ball of fire coming straight for us, and everyone started screaming and running, and within seconds, it hit us, the whole building shook like we were in an earthquake,” Muse told ABC News in an exclusive interview. 

Muse said she was saved by a colleague who later died. Her colleague Adam Bowman, who is a plaintiff in one of the suits, also jumped into action — saying he pulled one victim out of the inferno, who later passed away from his injuries.

“I turned my head, all I saw was a massive fireball,” Bowman said. “It started getting really hot, and thinking, I love my job, but I don’t want to die here.”

The lawsuit alleges the defendants, including UPS, the pilot, Boeing and others “negligently allowed” the aircraft “to be dispatched in an unsafe and an unairworthy condition resulting in the departure of the left pylon and engine from the wing causing the crash.”

They “accepted the risk of an MD-11 crash by continuing to utilize the aircraft type without more frequent and rigorous inspections of the pylon assemblies,” the filings said.

“People made decisions, corporations made decisions, to continue to operate these planes,” said attorney Masten Childers III, who is representing the plaintiffs.

Childers said in this case, UPS and the other defendants “took those risks, and those risks came to a head on Nov. 4 … when this plane fell out of the air on top of our clients.”

“More could have and should have been done to ensure that those problems were remedied so things like what happened on the 4th didnt happen,” Childers said.  

‘It happened out of the blue’
One of those deaths was 3-year-old Kimberly Asa, who was with her grandfather Louisnes Fedon at Grade A Recycling on the day of the crash.

Left behind — Kimberly’s mother, and Louisnes’ daughter.

“My dad was a really good person. My daughter, she was also a very bubbly person. I expected to watch her grow. I expected to always be able to run to my dad. So, the biggest thing is how it happened out of the blue,” Sherline Fedon said. “It’s not something that you hear about — when I finally saw a plane had hit, I don’t think anybody would have ever thought that it was their family. That’s something that you see on the news, and never think that you would be a part of it, or someone that you love to be a part of that. So I think what sticks with me the most is how random, and unheard of, it feels to me.” 

Kimberly “survived the initial impact” and “attempted to flee to safety from the explosion of nearly 220,000 pounds of jet fuel, seeking shelter from the smothering smoke and intense flames under a partially collapsed structure,” the documents alleging their wrongful deaths stated.

Their autopsies indicated that their deaths were not quick, according to the lawsuits.

Kimberly “suffered from excessive smoke inhalation resulting in soot in her airway, charring of all of her body surfaces and heat related fractures to her skull, left ribs and both arms,” according to the filings. Her cause of death was determined to be “smoke inhalation and thermal injuries resulting from the crash, explosion and subsequent fire” of the plane.

Her grandfather Louisnes also “survived the initial impact” and tried to flee with Kimberly, according to the filing. His “autopsy indicates that he suffered baking of his brain and right lung from the exposure to extreme temperature.” His cause of death was determined as “carbon monoxide intoxication, smoke inhalation and thermal injuries” from the crash and fire.

‘Known structural defects’
After the crash, federal investigators focused on metal fatigue cracks around the engine of the UPS plane that crashed on Nov. 4.

The lawsuits now home in on those cracks — alleging that overstress fracture and failure of the pylon assembly “significantly contributed to the crash.”

The lawsuits allege there were “known structural defects” with the MD-11F fleet of aircraft, citing a 2011 “service letter” issued by Boeing.

That letter informed operators of the MD-11 aircraft, including UPS, of the risk of bearing race failures, according to the lawsuits, which allege that despite that Boeing “did not alter the inspection interval for MD-11 spherical bearings and bearing races.”

The lawsuits also allege Boeing “failed to provide adequate warning of the defective condition of the MD-11 and failed to provide a reasonably safer alternative.”

Given what it called the “known risk” of the some of the plane’s alleged defects, UPS and the other defendants “knew or shoud have known that the assembly required more frequent inspection(s),” the lawsuit stated, alleging that the cost of such inspections would have made that plane model “inefficient for operation from a cost perspective.”

Regarding the actions of the pilot, the lawsuits argue Captain Wartenburg also had a duty to make sure his plane was safe to fly. Upon takeoff roll and rotation on the flight, a “repeated bell was sounding in the cockpit” but he “failed to act appropriately when presented with this alarm bell and failed to prevent the crash,” the lawsuits allege.

UPS pilots, including Wartenberg, knew this plane and type “as a problem aircraft with multiple defects but Defendant Wartenberg and the UPS Defendants, jointly and severally, elected to operate N259UP anyway,” the lawsuits claim.

In addition to those killed in the crash, others suffered “physical and psychological injuries,” and businesses suffered financial loss and damage from the crash, according to the lawsuits.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics chair Casey Wasserman to step down following the release of the Hollywood mogul’s emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and other offenses.

Some flirtatious emails sent between Wasserman and Maxwell in 2003 surfaced through the Department of Justice’s release last month of millions of Epstein-related documents. They followed a previously known trip to Africa that Wasserman took on Epstein’s plane in 2002 alongside former President Bill Clinton for a humanitarian mission with the Clinton Foundation.

The LA28 Executive Committee of the Board said last week it stands by Wasserman after its review found that his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell “did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented.”

In an interview with CNN on Monday, Bass said she disagrees with the board.

“The board made a decision. I think that decision was unfortunate. I don’t support the decision,” Bass said. 

The mayor, who noted that she is not able to fire Wasserman, said she thinks that “we need to look at the leadership” of LA28 and that her job is to ensure the city is “completely prepared” to host the Summer Olympics.

Wasserman heads LA28, the organizing committee responsible for delivering the 2028 Games, including securing corporate sponsors and other funding. He was previously the LA Olympic Bid Committee president.

“My opinion is, is that he should step down,” Bass said. “That’s not the opinion of the board.”

ABC News has reached out to Wasserman’s spokesperson and LA28 for comment regarding Bass’ remarks and has not yet received a response.

Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein in 2021.

In the newly publicized emails, sent nearly 20 years before Maxwell’s arrest, Wasserman told her in one exchange, “I think of you all the time… So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”

Since the emails came to light, Wasserman’s eponymous sports marketing and talent management company has lost several clients, including the singers Chappell Roan and Orville Peck and the former soccer player Abby Wambach.

Wasserman apologized for what he called his “past personal mistakes” in a message to his staff last week obtained by ABC News through his spokesperson.

“Hopefully by now you know the facts about my limited interactions with those two individuals,” he said. “It was years before their criminal conduct came to light, and, in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending. And I’m heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks.”

Wasserman said in his message to his staff that he believes he has become a “distraction” and has started the process to sell his company while he devotes his “full attention to delivering Los Angeles an Olympic Games in 2028 that is worthy of this outstanding city.”

The LA28 Executive Committee of the Board said last week that it “takes allegations of misconduct seriously” and conducted a review of Wasserman’s past interactions with Epstein and Maxwell with the help of outside counsel. 

“We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the board said in a statement, citing the 2002 flight to Africa on Epstein’s plane and the 2003 emails with Maxwell.   

“The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games,” the board said.

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