Another storm hitting Midwest, East Coast as Mid-Atlantic digs out from major snowfall
ABC News Illustration
(NEW YORK) — As the Mid-Atlantic digs out from a significant snowstorm, a new winter storm is underway in the Plains that will move through the Midwest before reaching the East Coast.
On Wednesday morning, the second storm is hitting Kansas City, Missouri, and Des Moines, Iowa.
The storm will reach Chicago later in the morning, dropping 4 to 6 inches of snow.
An ice storm warning has been issued for Toledo, Ohio, where ice accumulation could cause power outages.
The storm will move into the Northeast on Wednesday evening, bringing mostly rain to the Interstate 95 corridor and an icy mix to New England and upstate New York.
On the southern end of the storm, heavy rain could bring flash flooding from Louisiana to North Carolina.
Strong tornadoes are possible in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
This comes after another snowstorm walloped the Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday.
Virginia recorded more than 14 inches of snow and West Virginia recorded 13 inches. Trees are toppling in Virginia due to the coating of snow and ice and over 170,000 customers in the state are without power on Wednesday morning.
Public schools are closed on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., where there’s more than 6 inches of snow on the ground.
Philadelphia saw 2.6 inches of snow and New York City saw 1.4 inches.
Food and water has been left out for pets roaming Los Angeles County without their owners or homes after wildfires blazed through the area in January 2025. Via ABC News
(Los Angeles) — Whimpers and whines can be heard long before the sad feline and canine faces are visible within one Los Angeles-area animal shelter that has been overflowing since the fires.
Nearly 1,000 displaced and stray animals have come through the Pasadena Humane Society, just half a mile from a stadium housing people displaced by the fire.
Hundreds of animals are unidentified and waiting to be found by their owners; others are being housed at the shelter while their families find a place to live.
Several of the four-legged guests are receiving urgent medical care for burn injuries.
Among those rescued is a mama dog that was nursing her tiny puppies against the back wall of her kennel when ABC News visited on Thursday.
A kitten named Angel had all four paws wrapped in casts, yet slept soundly in her kennel with a cone around her neck.
The unfortunate reality is that there are still many pets that have yet to be safely recovered and hundreds of pet owners have not located their beloved family members after losing their homes.
Lost-and-found pet posters stapled to telephone poles are no longer an option, especially in fire-ravaged neighborhoods in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, where over 10,000 structures have burned to the ground.
A handful of “lost and found” pet pages emerged on social media after the fires, aiming to reunite lost pets with their families.
Desperate owners have been posting photos of their pets, hoping someone has seen their beloved family member.
Pasadena Humane Society has taken to putting out food and water in their now-uninhabitable neighborhoods, hoping to lure pets back — or, at least, stay nourished until they are found and reunited with their owners.
Unclaimed animals — listed as strays — will be held at the Pasadena Humane Society for 30 days and then placed for adoption.
Animal volunteers are urging the parents of lost pets to check local shelters each day in the hope of being reunited with missing animals.
Meanwhile, other pet owners who evacuated and lost their homes are taking refuge at hotels across Los Angeles.
The famous Beverly Hilton, which is known for hosting both the Golden Globes and Daytime Emmy Awards, is currently housing hundreds of displaced residents and their four-legged friends.
A “glamorous zoo” is how Hilton spokesperson Cody LaGrow described the scene, with hotel staff doing everything possible to accommodate the animals from a hospitality perspective.
The hotel is providing “wee wee” pads, helping with pet food and buying pet beds for guests.
The “pooch invasion,” as LaGrow described it, is a story of hope — with the hotel becoming a site of coping, resilience and emotional support, for both people and their cherished pets.
ABC News’ Brandon Chase contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Six months after a federal judge dismissed special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Donald Trump and his two co-defendants, defense attorneys are set to return to Florida to try to prevent the limited release of Smith’s final report detailing his investigation.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who tossed out the case based on the constitutionality of Smith’s appointment, is considering whether to prevent Attorney General Merrick Garland from allowing select members of Congress to view the volume of Smith’s report covering his probe — with Friday’s hearing set to serve as an epilogue to the criminal case that legal experts say once posed the most significant legal threat to the former president.
Earlier this week, Garland released the first volume of Smith’s report related to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, while withholding the second volume related to Smith’s classified documents probe because Trump’s former co-defendants are still appealing the case.
Garland has proposed allowing the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to see the volume, but Trump’s former co-defendants have argued that even a limited release of that volume should be blocked.
“The Final Report relies on materials to which Smith, as disqualified special counsel, is no longer entitled access — making his attempt to share such materials with the public highly improper,” lawyers for longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago staffer Carlos De Oliveria argued in a court filing, echoing the same argument about the constitutionality of Smith’s appointment that got the criminal case thrown out.
The defense lawyers have argued that releasing the report to members of Congress could result in a leak of its findings, which would keep Nauta and De Oliveria from receiving a fair trial if the appeals court reverses the case’s dismissal.
“Once the Report is disclosed to Congress, this Court will effectively lose its ability to control the flow of information related to privileged and confidential matters in a criminal proceeding,” lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira wrote. “That makes delaying the issuance of the Final Report until this matter is resolved essential, as there will be no way to put the proverbial cat back into the bag after the Final Report is shared with Congress, and no way to control congressional speech regarding the pending criminal case.”
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information. The former president, along with Nauta and De Oliveira, also pleaded not guilty in a superseding indictment to allegedly attempting to delete surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe have downplayed the risks of releasing Smith’s report on the case, arguing that the sensitive work products of other special counsels have been reviewed by members of Congress using secure protocols. The four members of Congress who would access Smith’s report would be bound by confidentiality, and would be limited to an on-camera review of the report in which they would be prohibited from taking notes.
“[T]his argument rests entirely on conjecture and disregards the options available to the Court to protect the Defendants from prejudice were this speculative chain of events to come to pass,” prosecutors argued. While Judge Cannon cast the legitimacy of Smith’s appointment into doubt, prosecutors argued that the question of releasing the report no longer relates to Smith — who resigned last week after handing the report in — and is fully in the hands of Garland.
“The Attorney General thus has authority to decide whether to release an investigative report prepared by his subordinates,” their filing said.
(LOS ANGELES) — An Instagram influencer accused of a drunk driving crash that killed a man in Southern California last summer has now been arrested, officials said.
Summer Wheaton, 33, surrendered Monday at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station when a warrant was issued for her arrest following a monthslong investigation, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
She faces several charges, including gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence, the sheriff’s department said.
Wheaton was released after posting bond, according to records viewed by ABC News.
On the night of July 4, 2024, Wheaton allegedly crossed the median on the Pacific Coast Highway and crashed head-on into another vehicle, according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
The other car’s driver — 44-year-old rideshare driver Martin Okeke — was killed in the crash.
Beforehand, Wheaton had been at a large party at the restaurant Nobu in Malibu, KABC reported.
Wheaton has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and describes herself online as a “wellness advocate” focused on “empowering individuals to become their highest selves.”
On Tuesday morning, a day after her arrest, Wheaton posted Bible verses to her Instagram story.
Wheaton went on a monthslong Instagram hiatus after the deadly crash, but returned in December with a promoted post for a “faith-based planner” she had created.
In the promotional video — which featured shots of Wheaton exercising, journaling and gazing out at the ocean — Wheaton spoke vaguely of a “hard” few months.
“You know that feeling when life feels like it’s all falling apart, but somehow it’s the start of something really beautiful? Well, that was me,” she said in the voiceover. “The last few months have been hard. I went through moments where I truly didn’t know I pulled through.”
“But in the chaos, something shifted. I was reminded of a deeper truth: that beautiful things can bloom out of despair,” she said. “Sometimes it’s in those broken places where faith takes root and grows stronger.”
Wheaton did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
