Stanley moves to protect short tracks
Senator Bill Stanley has formed a caucus of leaders to address the risk that racetracks in Virginia will lose races.…
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‘Buffy’ stars react to Nicholas Brendon’s death at 54
Former Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars are mourning the loss of actor Nicholas Brendon, who died at 54.
Brendon, who portrayed Xander Harris on the long-running supernatural drama, was a central figure in the series’ original cast and remained closely connected to fans of the show in the years that followed.
Alyson Hannigan, who starred alongside Brendon for years on the series, shared a heartfelt note on Instagram on Friday, reflecting on their friendship.
“My Sweet Nicky, thank you for years of laughter, love and Dodgers,” she wrote. “I will think of you every time I see a rocking chair. I love you. RIP.”
Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy, also honored Brendon with a deeply personal post, referencing a poignant line tied to the show’s themes of identity and belonging.
“They’ll never know how tough it is to be the one who isn’t chosen. To live so near to the spotlight, and never step in it,” Gellar wrote. “But I know. I see more than anybody realizes, because nobody’s watching me.”
She added, “I saw you Nicky. I know you are at peace, in that big rocking chair in the sky.”
Other Buffy stars to pay tribute to Brendon include David Boreanaz, who played Angel on the show before moving to his own spinoff; Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia, a love interest of Brendon’s character; and Emma Caulfield, who played former demon Anya, who also became a love interest for Brendon’s character.
The news of Brendon’s death was confirmed in a statement shared on his official Facebook page, revealing he passed away in his sleep from natural causes. The message described him as “passionate, sensitive, and endlessly driven to create,” noting that in recent years he had turned his focus to painting and art, which he often shared with loved ones and fans.
His death marks another loss for the Buffy community. In 2025, Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s younger sister, Dawn Summers, also passed away.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Trump threatens to put ICE agents in airports starting Monday amid DHS funding impasse
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he is ready to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to U.S. airports starting Monday if Democrats don’t agree to a funding package to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
“I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!” the president wrote in a post to his social media platform.
In an earlier social media post on Saturday, Trump wrote that unless Democrats “immediately sign an agreement” he will move to deploy ICE agents into American airports and conduct security enforcement “like no one has ever seen before.”
Trump said that operations would include immigration enforcement. It’s currently unclear what security roles, exactly, ICE agents will take on in airports.
The White House referred ABC News back to the president’s post when asked what capacity Americans can expect to see ICE operating in at airports.
Trump’s statements come after Democrats on Friday blocked legislation to reopen DHS for the fifth time since the partial shutdown began in mid-February.
Democrats have demanded changes to policy surrounding ICE and Customs and Border Protection in exchange for votes to fund all of the department. Republicans, meanwhile, have rejected Democratic efforts to fund other agencies in DHS like the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Thousands of TSA employees have now missed their first full paychecks, and travelers are facing long lines at airports around the country.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, during an appearance on Fox News earlier Saturday, called on Democrats to negotiate with Republicans.
“I just wish they would stop using the American people as leverage. Make them go through pain so Democrats can get what they want legislatively,” Duffy said.
On Capitol Hill, in a rare Saturday morning press conference, Senate Majority Leader John Thune also urged Democrats to agree to a funding deal.
“At some point, the Democrats are going to have to take yes for an answer. I know they think this is politically good for them. It is not,” Thune, R-S.D., said.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers met behind closed doors with White House border czar Tom Homan throughout the week. The latest meeting concluded late Friday night.
“We need to get the government open and we’ll keep talking until it has,” Homan told ABC News after the meeting.
Thune said he believed that meeting was “productive” and confirmed that the Trump administration added to its offer on DHS funding and submitted legislative text, though lawmakers have not publicly discussed what the new offer from the White House entails.
Thune said he hopes additional meetings take place over the weekend.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in speech on the Senate floor on Saturday, urged Republicans to support a Democratic effort to fund TSA while other negotiations continue.
“It is unacceptable for workers and travelers and entire airports to get taken hostage in political games, but that’s what the Republicans are doing,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said.
“It is unacceptable to say we will only pay TSA workers if it is attached to a bill that funds ICE with no reforms, but that’s what the Republicans have been doing. Democrats want to pay TSA workers ASAP, with no strings attached,” Schumer added.
Schumer said Democrats are “having productive conversations on reforming ICE and CBP” but that the process is “ongoing.”
“But we must fund TSA now. Let us keep negotiating the outstanding issues with ICE, but let us start sending paychecks to TSA workers now. Let us end the long lines at the airport now,” Schumer said.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Robert Mueller, former FBI director and special counsel, dies at 81
(NEW YORK) — Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who led the bureau in the tumultuous decade following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and who later served as special counsel overseeing the politically charged investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, has died, his family announced. He was 81.
“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away last night,” a family statement said. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”
The FBI Agents Association also weighed in on the passing of Mueller, noting he led the bureau “during a period of significant change and played an important role in strengthening its ability to confront evolving national security threats while maintaining its core criminal investigative mission.”
Mueller was the second-longest serving FBI director in the agency’s history. He had a decorated career in public service, cultivating a reputation for steady leadership, dedication to country and commitment to protecting the nation’s security.
Born in New York City on Aug. 7, 1944, Robert Swan Mueller III studied politics at Princeton University, and then earned a masters in international relations from New York University.
Upon leaving the Marines in 1970 at the rank of captain, Mueller attended the University of Virginia Law School, graduating in 1973 and then spending the next 28 years working as a U.S. attorney in San Francisco, Boston and Washington, D.C., as well as three years at the Department of Justice Criminal Division.
During his time at the DOJ, Mueller investigated the Gambino crime family and also prosecuted the men responsible for bombing a Pan Am Flight in December 1988, as well as former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega.
On July 5, 2001, Mueller was appointed to be director of the FBI, nominated by then-President George W. Bush. His tenure there saw the bureau’s focus shift from domestic investigations to tackling foreign terrorists after the 9/11 attacks, during which time Mueller developed a reputation among agents for being no-nonsense.
After serving his full 10-year term as FBI director, Mueller agreed to then-President Barack Obama’s request to remain in the position for two more years, after which he returned to the private sector in 2013.
In May 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to oversee the investigation of alleged Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. The investigation focused primarily on the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign and returned numerous high-profile indictments, including political consultant and lobbyist Roger Stone, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and 32 others.
Mueller submitted his controversial report in March 2019, which did not find that the Trump campaign had worked with the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Two months later, he stepped down from his special counsel position and returned to private life.
Addressing the 2017 graduating class at Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts, Mueller advised the graduates to live their lives with “integrity, patience and humility.”
“Whatever we do, we must act with honesty and with integrity, and regardless of your chosen career, you’re only as good as your word,” Mueller declared. “If you are not honest, your reputation will suffer, and once lost, a good reputation can never, ever be regained.”
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‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ star Nicholas Brendon dead at 54
Buffy The Vampire Slayer actor Nicholas Brendon has passed away at the age of 54. The news was announced in a statement posted on Brendon’s Facebook page.
“We are heartbroken to share the passing of our brother and son, Nicholas Brendon. He passed in his sleep of natural causes,” reads the statement. “Most people know Nicky for his work as an actor and for the characters he brought to life over the years. In recent years Nicky has found his passion in painting and art. Nicky loved to share his enthusiastic talent with his family, friends and fans.”
“He was passionate, sensitive, and endlessly driven to create. Those who truly knew him understood that his art was one of the purest reflections of who he was,” the post continues. “Our family asks for privacy during this time as we grieve his loss and celebrate the life of a man who lived with intensity, imagination, and heart.”
Brendon rose to fame playing Xander Harris on all seven seasons of the hit WB series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan. He also had a recurring role on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, and appeared in the short-lived Fox series Kitchen Confidential, based on the book by chef Anthony Bourdain.
Outside of TV, he appeared in several films, including the 2000 comedy Psycho Beach Party, which also starred Lauren Ambrose and Amy Adams, and the 2002 horror film Demon Island.
Brendon was frequently in the news for legal troubles: He’d been arrested multiple times, with his first arrest happening 2010. Charges he faced over the years included resisting arrest, battery, felony vandalism, malicious injury and more. He also dealt with substance abuse issues, and went to rehab for addiction to alcohol and sleeping pills.
Brendon is the second member of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer cast to die in recent years. Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s sister, Dawn Summers, passed away in 2025.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Senate once again fails to advance DHS funding bill
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats once again on Friday blocked a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security on Friday as they continue to insist on reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection in exchange for funding the agency.
It marks the fifth time since the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security — which began in mid-February — that the funding bill has failed to be advanced in the Senate.
The vote comes as many federal workers continue to go unpaid and travelers face massive lines at airports as Transportation Security Administration employees working without pay call out.
The bill that Republicans put forward on Friday to fund all of DHS would have needed 60 votes to advance. It fell short by a vote of 47-37.
Parts of DHS — from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Transportation Security Administration — are shut down amid a funding fight over ICE.
Democrats have said they will fund the department only if changes are made to the agency in the wake of the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Democrats said that they will continue to block funding until their demands on body cameras, judicial warrants and unmasking officers are met.
“Democrats have been very clear what we are asking for here since late January, and our asks have not changed,” Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a speech on the Senate floor Friday.
There are signs of potential progress though as Border Czar Tom Homan met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday to discuss DHS funding, and Majority Leader John Thune told ABC News that there will be another meeting between lawmakers and Homan later Friday.
These meetings follow repeated demands by Democrats for the White House to engage in the negotiations over ICE reform.
Thune said that Friday’s meeting with Homan would be critical in determining whether there could be movement on funding.
“We’re going to find out if Dems are serious. There were a couple of areas yesterday that they had identified, in additions to some of the, you know, reforms the administration had recommended that to me could find a path forward,” Thune said. “The question is, are Dems serious? Or do they see this as a political issue and something that benefits them.”
Murray, who was part of the negotiations with Homan Thursday, said that the conversations were “productive,” but that the “basic challenges remain.” She said that Democrats remain “very far apart” from Republicans and the White House on a path forward.
With long airport security lines plaguing travelers across the country, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are feeling the heat to hammer out a deal.
“This needs to be resolved,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said. “I mean, there are genuine disputes about ICE reforms. I think no one wants to see a return of what we saw in Minneapolis. But that doesn’t mean we should be holding the rest of these federal employees hostage again.”
As negotiations continue there have been efforts by Democrats to fund other agencies in DHS other than ICE — like the Coast Guard, TSA, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. But Republicans have blocked those efforts, saying that Democrats need to negotiate a full funding package rather than taking a piecemeal approach.
“Democrats have tried again and again to get paychecks to TSA and CISA and the Coast Guard and FEMA — agencies that are doing really important work right now,” Murray said. “The only reason these workers are going without pay right now is because Republicans are holding their funding hostage so they can try to give ICE even more money without including any necessary reforms.”
While there is some FY2026 funding for ICE, the agency received a $75 billion infusion of funding over the next decade through the already-passed “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Democrats are expected to continue efforts to fund these agencies, including TSA, while negotiations proceed. But right now, it does not seem that Republicans are open to this approach.
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Dangerous flooding on Hawaii’s Oahu island prompts evacuations, warning of possible dam collapse
(OAHU, Hawaii) — Dangerous flooding is impacting Hawaii’s Oahu island, prompting evacuations and a warning from local officials of a possible dam collapse, as major rains pummel the area for the second significant rain event in a week.
An evacuation order was issued early Friday morning local time for Haleiwa and Waialua, including areas near the Wahiawa Dam, according to Oahu Emergency Management, which warned that the dam “may collapse or breach at any time.”
The dam “has not failed but is at imminent risk of failure,” Oahu Emergency Management said mid-morning local time Friday.
“Potential for life-threatening flooding and catastrophic amounts of fast-moving water in downstream areas,” the agency warned.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said the Hawaii National Guard has been activated and other resources are being deployed across Oahu amid the “severe storm.”
“We are coordinating closely with state and county partners to support evacuations, open shelters, and keep our communities safe,” he said on X.
The latest flood threat comes a week after a damaging flood event that washed away roads and damaged homes.
A flash flood emergency was issued for northern Oahu earlier Friday for “catastrophic” flooding. Local emergency personnel had reported “life-threatening flash flooding” early Friday across northern Oahu, according to the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
“Floodwaters have cut off road access in and out of Haleiwa, and widespread flooding of roadways and low-lying areas is ongoing,” the NWS said, warning that “significant runoff continues to produce high water levels and dangerous flooding impacts.”
The Hawaii Department of Transportation advised of several road closures in the area early Friday due to flooding.
Flood conditions were expected to worsen, with more heavy rain forecast for the region throughout the day. The NWS warned that mudslides could occur in steep terrain areas.
The heaviest rain will be Friday through Saturday for most islands — with the Big Island getting the heaviest rain on Sunday.
Thunderstorms will be possible at times, which may include damaging winds.
Flood watches are in effect for the Hawaiian Islands through Sunday, with at least 2 to 7 inches of rain possible during the event.
ABC News’ Kyle Reiman contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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Trump reverses course in Colorado House race, backing GOP incumbent he once scorned
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump made a stunning reversal Friday by again backing a Colorado House Republican for reelection a month after he publicly scorned him and endorsed his opponent.
In a lengthy social media post, Trump said he would no longer back Hope Scheppelman’s bid in the Republican primary for Rep. Jeff Hurd’s seat in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, after she accepted an offer to join his administration.
“Together with them, we decided that Congressman Jeff Hurd, of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, should in no way, shape, or form, be impeded from winning the District in that the Democrat alternative is a DISASTER for our Country,” he said in his social media post.
In February, Trump withdrew his endorsement of Hurd, lashing out against him in a social media post after he voted to rebuke the president’s tariffs on Canada.
“Hurd is one of a small number of Legislators who have let me and our Country down,” Trump said in the February social media post.
In Friday’s announcement, the president changed his mind.
“Every true MAGA supporter and Republican, if they truly care about saving our Country, will do everything in their power to unify together, and defeat the Crazed Radical Left Democrats this November,” he said.
The district has been red since 2011, and has traditionally been seen as a strong Republican area.
Trump said he spoke with Scheppelman, a Navy veteran and nurse, and her husband, about his decision and offered both of them positions in his administration in a “capacity to be determined.”
“Hope and Steven are wonderful and patriotic Veterans of our U.S. Navy, and loyal supporters of our Historic MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN Movement,” Trump said in the post.
Hurd thanked Trump for the endorsement in an X post Friday.
“The President and I share the same goals: securing the border, American energy dominance, and helping working families,” he said.
Scheppelman, whose social media pages feature a picture of her and Trump posing with thumbs-up signs, said in a statement on X that she would suspend her campaign given Trump’s request.
She said Hurd “now has the opportunity to correct his naive voting record and support President Trump, and our slim Republican majority in the U.S. House, in our shared battle to save the country we love.”
“If he does not, I will run again in 2028 and defeat [Hurd] in order to give the citizens of Colorado’s 3rd district, and all of America, the representation we deserve,” Scheppelman added.
Trump’s involvement a welcome development for House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson protecting a historically small majority this fall.
By backing Hurd, the GOP avoids another contentious primary in a long red district, as the incumbent is running unopposed.
Alex Kelloff, a Democratic candidate running for the House seat, responded to the president’s announcement Friday on X.
“Trump is worried we’re going to win this seat, a testament to all the work our campaign has been doing the last 11 months,” he said.
The Colorado primary is set for June 30.
-ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
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