Category: National

(ALASKA) — Four people, including a child, who got trapped on an ice floe during a seal hunting expedition in Alaska were safely rescued, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday, calling it one of the most “challenging missions” the helicopter crew has ever flown.

The daring rescue occurred early Sunday, approximately 10 miles west of Chefornak, a remote village in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region in southwestern Alaska.

Alaska State Troopers reported to the Coast Guard at 4:24 p.m. on Saturday that a “group of four people on a subsistence seal hunting expedition required assistance after being trapped on the ice for over 24 hours,” the Coast Guard said in a press release.

The group managed to free the 18-foot vessel overnight, but moving ice prevented it from reaching the shore, the Coast Guard said.

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak reached the scene at approximately 5 p.m. Sunday, and all four people — three adults and one child — were safely hoisted aboard, according to the Coast Guard, which released video footage of the rescue.

The conditions at the time included 28-degree air temperature and 29 mph winds, the Coast Guard said.

The individuals were transported back to Chefornak with no reported injuries, the Coast Guard said.

“Our entire crew agreed this was one of the most challenging missions any of us had ever flown,” Lt. Cmdr. Alexis Chavarria-Aguilar, pilot-in-command for the helicopter, said in a statement. “We battled nearly every Alaska-centric aviation weather hazard imaginable, such as flying over 800 miles in near-zero visibility through mountainous terrain, blowing snow and icing conditions.” 

“It was a long, difficult night, but I’m so proud of everyone involved who worked seamlessly together to bring four people home safely,” he added.

The Coast Guard noted that the hunting party had three forms of communication on their vessel — including satellite-based — which “greatly enhanced” the aircrew’s ability to find and rescue them.

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(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors arrested the organizer of New York City’s controversial SantaCon bar crawl Wednesday after they say he allegedly kept a lot of the holiday joy for himself.

Stefan Pildes, 50, is facing federal wire fraud charges that accuse him of siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable funds for his own use, including for concert tickets and vacations.

SantaCon is an event held annually in December in which thousands of attendees dress as Santa Claus and other holiday characters and travel to bars and restaurants throughout the day.

The event is billed as “a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year to spread absurdist joy” that charges attendees tickets that cost between $10 and $20, the indictment said.

“When one Attendee, for example, asked what she would receive for purchasing a ticket, the SantaCon Email responded, in part, ‘your donation goes to charity and it is only a few bucks and that good feeling will warm your heart faster than whiskey and gingerbread,'” the indictment said.

But of nearly $3 million Pildes raised since 2019, he allegedly diverted more than half to an entity he used as a slush fund, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court.

Prosecutors allege Pildes used the money for personal expenses, including $365,000 to renovate a lakefront property in New Jersey, $124,000 toward the lease of a “luxury Manhattan apartment,” a “$100,000 investment in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a personal friend,” and a nearly $3,000 birthday dinner, the indictment said.

Pildes was expected to appear in court later Wednesday, and it was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.

He is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The bar crawl has become a controversial event in Manhattan with complaints from local leaders and residents accusing some intoxicated Santa-dressed revelers of causing disturbances during the day

The NYPD has issued several summonses and made some arrests at past SantaCons.

-ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

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(ATLANTA) — A Department of Homeland Security employee was “brutally shot and stabbed to death,” Monday, according to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, in a shooting spree across the Atlanta area, in which one other person was killed and a third is in critical condition.

Lauren Bullis was walking her dog on Monday, when she was randomly attacked, allegedly stabbed and shot by Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a 26-year-old born in the United Kingdom who was naturalized in 2022, Mullin said.

“He possesses a prior criminal record that includes convictions for sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, and assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism and now stands accused of murdering @DHSgov employee Lauren Bullis by shooting and stabbing her while she walked her dog,” Mullin wrote on X.

Mullin said Abel was arrested for reportedly shooting a woman to death outside a restaurant before “randomly shooting a homeless man multiple times” outside a supermarket. ABC affiliate WSB reported that man is in critical condition.

Police said Abel, 26, shot and stabbed Burris about four hours later, according to WSB.

Police raided a home that the suspect rented near where Burris was attacked and arrested Abel, WSB reported, who faces at least six charges, including murder, aggravated assault and possession of a gun as a convicted felon.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Federal authorities are investigating after a California resident reported that a large chunk of ice fell from the sky and crashed through the roof of a house and landed on a couch.

The incident occurred around 11:15 a.m. on Friday at a home in Whittier in Los Angeles County, according to local officials. 

The resident reported hearing “what sounded like an explosion” and found a large block of dirty-looking ice on the living room couch, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office said in a press release on Tuesday.

The ice had crashed through the roof and ceiling, according to Hahn’s office, which released photos of the damage to the home. 

No one was injured in the incident, Hahn’s office said. 

Local law enforcement and fire personnel responded and classified the situation as a “suspicious circumstance,” and the resident submitted a report to the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Hahn. 

The home is under the Los Angeles International Airport landing approach. Data from Flightradar24 shows there were planes flying over the house around the time of the incident, and there is a plane over the house approximately every 3 minutes.

Hahn has called for a “thorough and timely” investigation into the incident in a letter to the FAA. The letter, dated Tuesday, noted that a “large mass of ice penetrated the roof of a residential home, causing significant structural damage and posing substantial risk of injury or loss of life.”

“While such incidents are rare, the potential consequences are extremely serious,” Hahn wrote. “Whether the material originated from aircraft systems, waste leakage, or another source, this event raises important concerns about aviation safety over densely populated communities in Los Angeles County.”

The FAA said it is investigating, and that the agency investigates every report it receives alleging ice fell from an airplane and damaged property.

The homeowner, Thania Magana, had reached out to Hahn on Saturday, “requesting assistance ensuring this incident is properly investigated,” Hahn’s office said.

Magana told ABC Los Angeles station KABC that the ice smelled bad and she’s concerned that she touched it.

“We definitely want to know what it consists of and if it’s going to affect our health,” she told the station.

If the ice was due to a plane, Magana told KABC that she wants to “understand why it happens, because even right now as we’re speaking, there’s a plane flying over us and it’s scary.”

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(NEW ORLEANS) — An apparent Molotov cocktail was used to start a fire outside a Tesla sales office in New Orleans, according to federal officials.

The incendiary device sparked a blaze at the office’s front door just before 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and New Orleans police.

No one was injured, but the business suffered damage, police said.

No arrests have been made, police said. 

ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Cadaver dogs are heading to help with the search for Lynette Hooker, an American woman who’s missing in the Bahamas, according to police.

The K-9 team from the U.S. Coast Guard will be on the ground in Hope Town on Wednesday morning, Advardo Dames, assistant commissioner of the ​Royal Bahamas Police, told ABC News.

Lynette Hooker has been missing since she went overboard on a dinghy on the evening of April 4.

When the 55-year-old Michigan woman and her husband, Brian Hooker, departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay, bad weather caused her to fall off the dinghy, her husband told authorities.

Brian Hooker, 58, was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.

Brian Hooker told ABC News on Tuesday that he’s staying in the Bahamas with a “sole focus” of finding his wife, “no matter how likely or unlikely that is.”

He said he was planning “to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search.”

Brian Hooker’s attorney did not allow him to answer questions about what happened the night his wife went overboard due to the pending investigation.

When asked if there was anything he wishes he’d done differently, Brian Hooker was emotional, saying, “I will always think there was something I could have done differently. My one job, my one job was to look out for her, and that has not happened. And I’m gonna keep looking out for her now, the best I can.”

ABC News’ Brian Andrews contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A rare asteroid will soon be visible to the naked eye in a rare celestial event, according to astronomers.

Asteroid 99942 Apophis – named after the Egyptian deity of chaos, darkness and fire – is expected to safely pass close to Earth on April 13, 2029, according to NASA.

The asteroid will pass within roughly 20,000 miles of Earth – nearly 12 times closer than the moon’s average distance from Earth, and closer than many satellites in geosynchronous orbit – making it one one of the closest approaches ever recorded for an object if its size and a “very rare event,” according to NASA.

The approach will be visible to observers on the ground in the Eastern Hemisphere, weather permitting, according to NASA. It will be close enough that sky-watchers won’t need a telescope or binoculars to see it, astronomers say.

When Apophis was first discovered in 2004, it was labeled a potentially hazardous asteroid because of the possibility that it could impact Earth in 2029, 2036 or 2068, according to NASA.

After closely tracking the asteroid and its orbit using optical telescopes and ground-based radar, astronomers are now confident that there is no risk of Apophis impacting Earth for at least 100 years.

The Earth’s gravitational pull could change the asteroid’s orbit around the sun as it passes in 2029, making the orbit slightly larger or the orbital period slightly longer, but the risk of impact with Earth will remain the same, NASA says. Its close passage will also afford astronomers around the world the opportunity to learn more about the asteroid.

Apophis is the Greek name for the Egyptian god known as Apep. The name was proposed by the astronomers who discovered the asteroid: Roy Tucker, David Tholen and Fabrizio Bernardi of the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.

The asteroid is a relic of the early solar system from about 4.6 billion years ago, made of leftover raw material that was never part of a planet or moon, according to NASA. Though its exact size and shape is unknown, it has a mean diameter of about 1,115 feet and a long axis of at least 1,480 feet.

Apophis’ surface is weathered due to eons of exposure to space weather, including solar wind and cosmic rays, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Observatories around the world and in space will observe the asteroid’s historic approach to Earth in order to better understand its physical properties.

NASA has redirected a spacecraft to rendezvous with Apophis shortly after its close approach in 2029, while the European Space Agency is sending a spacecraft to study it.

When the April 2029 flyby occurs, Apophis will become a member of the “Apollo” group, the family of asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit but that themselves have orbits around the sun that are wider than the Earth’s, according to the ESA.

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(WASHINGTON) –A federal appeals court on Tuesday halted a criminal contempt inquiry into former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials for last year’s deportation of more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, marking the second time in less than a year that the probe has been frozen.

A divided panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered an end to the inquiry, concluding that the probe into whether the officials knowingly defied a court order with the deportations “encroaches on the autonomy” of the executive branch.

The Trump administration, in March 2025, invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes be turned around, but Justice Department attorneys said his oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and the deportations proceeded as planned.

Boasberg subsequently sought contempt proceedings against the government for deliberately defying his order, and had concluded that “probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt” — but his inquiry was frozen by the same appeals court last year.

When Boasberg attempted to continue with his probe within the confines of the court’s order, the Trump administration filed an interlocutory appeal to stop the investigation outright.

“The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy,” Judge Neomi Rao, one of two Trump appointees on the panel who ruled in favor of the government, wrote in Tuesday’s order. “These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion, as the district court’s order said nothing about transferring custody of the plaintiffs and therefore lacks the clarity to support criminal contempt based on the transfer of custody.”

Judge J. Michelle Childs dissented from the majority and argued that Boasberg should have the latitude to proceed with basic fact-finding into the deportations.

“There is no question that there could be much to fear in a factual inquiry about the actions of potential contemnors who may have defied a court order. However, that does not mean that this court must intervene to end a criminal case before it begins, even for the Executive Branch,” she wrote.

In a sharply worded dissent, she argued that “the fate of our democratic republic” depends on whether courts can properly investigate and punish contempt.  

“Without the contempt power, the rule of law is an illusion, a theory that stands upon shifting sands,” she said.

Lee Gelernt, the lead counsel representing the Venezuelans, said in a statement, “The opinion is a blow to the rule of law. Our system is built on the executive branch, including the president, respecting court orders. In this case there is no longer any question that the Trump administration willfully violated the court’s order.”

The Venezuelan nationals were ultimately released to their home country from CECOT in a prisoner swap last July.

ABC News’ Armando Garcia contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — More than 50 million people across the Midwest are bracing for severe weather on Tuesday, a day after baseball-sized hail and multiple tornadoes were reported in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas.

The threat of damaging storms has shifted slightly south from where strong winds blew the roofs off several buildings on Monday, including the collapse of a nursing home roof in Lodi, Wisconsin.

A level 3 out of 5 “enhanced risk” for severe storms is in place on Tuesday for parts of Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, far northern Indiana, far northwestern Ohio and southern Michigan. Strong tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail are possible for parts of the Midwest on Tuesday, including the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Des Moines, Iowa and Detroit.

A level 3 out of 5 “enhanced risk” for severe storms is also in place on Tuesday for parts of central Oklahoma. Some tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail are possible for parts of the south-central Plains on Tuesday, including Oklahoma City.

A widespread area from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to the U.S.-Canadian border in Michigan is under the threat of slightly less severe storms on Tuesday.

Tornadoes, especially in Oklahoma, are possible, along with large hail and damaging winds.

In the Northeast, there is also a chance for severe storms in parts of the region on Tuesday, with damaging wind gusts expected from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire, including the cities of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Binghamton and Albany, New York, and Burlington, Vermont.

The storms are expected to pop up in the Northeast sometime after 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday and continue into the evening.

The severe weather comes after destructive storms hit on Monday in parts of rural Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas.

At least 14 tornadoes were reported on Monday across Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

The sheriff’s office in Franklin County, Kansas, reported that three people suffered minor injuries when a suspected tornado touched down in Ottawa, Kansas.

Video taken by ABC Kansas City affiliate station, KMBC, showed the roofs ripped off several buildings in the Ottawa area, including a motel in the city.

In nearby Hillsdale, Kansas, in Miami County, more than 50 homes were damaged by a suspected tornado, according to the Red Cross, which was providing support for displaced families.

On Wednesday, severe storms are expected to be in place from Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, to southern Wisconsin. Parts of Kansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Ohio, including the cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland, could also be in the path of severe weather on Wednesday.

In Michigan, heavy rains over the past few days, combined with snow melt, caused flooding on Monday when several rivers, including the Manistee River in northwest Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, overflowed, officials said. Several roads and bridges were washed away in the flood and some homes were damaged by the floodwaters, authorities said.

The Manistee River, near Sherman, Michigan, reached a new record level on Monday and was still rising early Tuesday morning as heavy rain continued to fall. The river has surpassed 18 feet, topping its previous record of 16.9 feet set in April 2014, authorities said.

Residents living downstream from two Michigan dams were advised to evacuate after seepage was found at the base of the Bellaire Dam in Antrim County. The Cheboygan Dam in Cheboygan County, near Lake Huron, was at risk of failing, authorities said Monday night.

Rain in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is expected to taper off on Tuesday afternoon, but another round of thunderstorms is expected to bring more rain to the area on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, increasing the flooding threat and adding pressure to the Bellaire and Cheboygan dams.

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(NEW YORK) — Brian Hooker, whose wife was reported missing in the Bahamas after going overboard on a dinghy, told ABC News he is staying on the island with his “sole focus” on finding her.

Lynette Hooker, 55, of Michigan, has been missing for over a week. She and Brian Hooker, 58, had departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay around 7:30 p.m. on April 4, when bad weather caused Lynette Hooker to fall overboard, her husband told authorities.

Brian Hooker was arrested on Wednesday and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.

Hooker described being in police custody as “hell.”

“It was a little different chapter of hell in a giant hell that I’m in,” he said, overcome with emotion.

He told ABC News on Tuesday morning that he will stay in the Bahamas until his visa runs out.

He said his “only focus is to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search.”

“I want you to know Lynette and I loved each other the most — we’ve been together almost half our lives,” Brian Hooker said. “My sole focus is finding Lynette, no matter how likely or unlikely that is. This search for Lynette has been interrupted by the investigation. I understand that investigations have to take place, but I’m going as soon as I can to start finding Lynette.”

Brian Hooker’s attorney did not allow him to answer questions about what happened the night his wife went overboard due to the pending investigation.

When asked if there was anything he wishes he’d done differently, Brian Hooker was emotional, saying, “I will always think there was something I could have done differently. My one job, my one job was to look out for her, and that has not happened. And I’m gonna keep looking out for her now, the best I can.”

“I’m going to keep going. I’m not leaving until I’m told to leave or convinced that it’s fruitless,” he said.

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