Category: National

(POLK COUNTY, N.C.) — As firefighters continued to battle three stubborn North Carolina wildfires in the same county, a breezy and dry forecast for the danger zones is threatening to spread the flames, officials said.

The three fires, including two that have overlapped, are in steep, rugged terrain in Polk County that is covered with downed trees and dry vegetation left over from Hurricane Helene that swept through the area in September, authorities said.

As of Tuesday morning, the fires, now being referred to collectively as the Black Cove Complex, have burned more than 5,700 acres of forest land about 40 miles southeast of Asheville, officials said.

Two of the blazes, the Black Cove Fire and the Deep Woods Fires, both remain 0% contained, the Polk County Government said in a statement Monday evening.

The Black Cove Fire, which started on March 19 about 2 miles northeast of the community of Saluda, had grown by more than 2,000 acres by Monday. The Deep Woods Fire, which also began on March 19 about 5 miles northwest of Columbus, had burned more than 2,500 acres as of Monday evening, officials said. Mandatory evacuation orders issued for both fires remained in effect on Tuesday morning.

“The fire is burning in timber on steep terrain and is currently 0% contained,” fire officials said of the Deep Woods Fire.

Firefighters, who have been prioritizing protecting structures, reported Tuesday that no structures are under imminent threat. No injuries have been reported from any of the blazes.

The third fire in Polk County is the Fish Hook Fire, which started on March 20, near Lake Adger, about 5 miles northwest of Mill Springs, was 50% contained on Monday evening after burning about 200 acres, officials said.

A small amount of rain was recorded in Polk County on Monday, but it had little effect on the fires, officials said.

Meteorologist Ashley Rehnberg of the National Weather Service office in Greer, South Carolina, told ABC News that rainfall totals in Polk County from Monday’s cold front ranged from .03 inches to .08 inches.

North Carolina residents remain under a statewide ban on outdoor burning.

Fire danger for Polk County is expected to go up on Wednesday afternoon as wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph are forecast. Winds are expected to die down on Thursday.

Wildfires extended into neighboring South Carolina, where Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency on Saturday.

A wildfire in the Table Rock State Park on the South Carolina-North Carolina border started on Friday night and quickly spread to more than 1,000 acres by Monday, according to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office.

“Evacuations remain in effect at this time. No further evacuations are expected. Residents are advised to remain aware of the situation by monitoring local news and social media and be prepared to evacuate if it should become necessary,” according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.

ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke contributed to this report.

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(PIERCE COUNTY, Wash.) — A 28-year-old woman is missing after she and her dog fell into a Washington state river, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday.

Zuleika Witron was hiking with her girlfriend and two dogs on Sunday when she and one of the dogs fell off the Fairfax Bridge and into the Carbon River in Washington, located in Mount Rainier National Park, police said.

The woman’s girlfriend “witnessed her being swept away in the heavy current and attempted to grab her before being swept away in the rapids,” police said.

Police said a water rescue team responded to the scene, accompanied by drones searching for Witron and her dog.

The area’s sharp rocks, steep inclines, thick brush and slippery conditions made it difficult for rescue teams to access, police said.

The dog was located about a quarter mile downstream and was returned to Witron’s girlfriend, police said.

Authorities continued to search 1.5 miles down the river for Witron, but she has not been found, police said.

A Coast Guard helicopter was requested and initially en route to the scene, but the “visibility became too limited to operate safely,” police said.

“For every minute that’s passing by, it’s not being helpful for us,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Carly Cappetto told Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO.

The initial search was suspended at approximately 6:13 p.m. on Sunday, police said.

On Monday, authorities said drones have continued to search for Witron and the “search and rescue mission has now been changed to a recovery mission.”

If the weather permits, officials will attempt to get “air assets to survey the canyon” for Witron, police said.

Witron’s sister said on Tuesday the family is now offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who is able to locate her.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is refusing to provide a federal judge with any additional information about last week’s deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, arguing the disclosure of the information would “pose reasonable danger to national security and foreign affairs.”

In a court filing Monday evening and in a series of sworn affidavits by three top cabinet officials, the Trump administration invoked the “state secrets privilege” to attempt to stop U.S. District Judge James Boasberg from learning more information about the flights as the judge tries to determine if the government willfully violated a court order last week.

Boasberg last week issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the government turn around two deportation flights on their way to El Salvador after the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process.

The government failed to turn the flights around, and an official subsequently acknowledged that “many” of the detainees did not have criminal records in the United States.

“This is a case about the President’s plenary authority, derived from Article II and the mandate of the electorate, and reinforced by longstanding statute, to remove from the homeland designated terrorists participating in a state-sponsored invasion of, and predatory incursion into, the United States,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign wrote in Monday’s filing. “The Court has all of the facts it needs to address the compliance issues before it.”

To determine if the Trump administration complied with his order last week, Judge Boasberg had requested information about the number of alleged gang members on each flight, when the flights took off and left U.S. airspace, where the flights landed, and when the men were transferred out of U.S. custody. The Trump administration so far has refused to provide any of the requested information.

In a sworn affidavit, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem argued that disclosing the timing of the flights or the number of alleged gang members on board each flight would “cause significant harm to the national security of the United States” by exposing “critical means and methods of law enforcement operations” and potentially harming diplomatic relationships.

“Removal flight plans — including locations from which flights depart, the planes utilized, the paths they travel, where they land, and how long they take to accomplish any of those things — reflect critical means and methods of law enforcement operations,” said Noem.

“In addition to flight operations, the number of TdA members on a given removal flight is also information that, if disclosed, would expose ICE’s means and methods, thus threatening significant harm to the national security of the United States,” Noem said, referring to the Tren de Aragua gang.

While the flight information in question is available through public aircraft tracking programs, Noem argued that confirming the information would still be “damaging to national interests” by enabling the country’s “enemies.”

“If the Government were to confirm or deny the information sought by this Court’s Minute Order, there would arise a danger that enemies of our national security would be able to stitch together an understanding of the means and methods used to thwart their unlawful and sometimes violent conduct,” Noem wrote.

In addition to Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi also submitted sworn affidavits. In his declaration, Rubio said that disclosing the information would make it harder to negotiate removals going forward and harm the “high stakes negotiation” with the detainees’ home county.

“If foreign partners believed that any relevant details could be revealed to third parties, those foreign partners would be less likely to work with the United States in the future,” Rubio wrote. “That impairs the foreign relations and diplomatic capabilities of the United States and threatens significant harm to the national security of the United States.”

With the Trump administration invoking state secrets privilege, Judge Boasberg will have to determine whether the government has provided sufficient information to justify keeping the information under wraps. Justice Department lawyers also declined to provide any information to Judge Boasberg in camera — in a private setting without public disclosure of the materials — by arguing that he is not entitled to information about diplomatic secrets.

“Further intrusions on the Executive Branch would present dangerous and wholly unwarranted separation-of-powers harms with respect to diplomatic and national security concerns that the Court lacks competence to address,” Ensign wrote.

The Trump administration faces a separate deadline Tuesday to prove they did not violate Judge Boasberg’s order to return the two flights carrying alleged gang members. Ensign wrote that the government plans to comply with that request and prove that there is “no basis for the suggestion of noncompliance with any binding order.”

Monday’s court filing came on the same day a federal appeals court heard arguments from the Trump administration seeking to overturn Boasberg’s block on the use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations. The appeals court did not issue an immediate ruling.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York will hear arguments Tuesday over whether to extend an order that prevents Columbia University from the sharing student disciplinary records of a number of pro-Palestinian activists with a House of Representatives committee.

The request for an injunction was filed by a group of Columbia students and graduates, including Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian activist detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement who is separately fighting his detention by the Trump administration.

Khalil and the others said the Republican-controlled committee’s request for their records violates the First Amendment and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and made Columbia “feel pressure to cooperate with the government in its efforts to chill and punish protected speech.”

Judge Aruba Subramanian has temporarily blocked Columbia from disclosing the student records and will hear arguments Tuesday afternoon over whether to permanently block sharing of the records or allow the school to cooperate with the committee.

The government arrested Khalil on March 8 after invoking a rarely used provision of immigration law that they said allows the secretary of state to revoke the legal status of people whose presence in the country could have “adverse foreign policy consequences.” He continues to be held in Louisiana awaiting further court proceedings.

Last week, Columbia University ceded to Trump administration demands after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold $400 million in federal funds. The school agreed to ban masks on campus, one of the Trump administration’s key demands, as well as stricter controls over its Middle East Studies department, which will now be overseen by a new senior vice provost who “will conduct a thorough review of the portfolio of programs in regional areas across the University, starting immediately with the Middle East.” The university also agreed to hire 36 new police officers empowered to make arrests of student protesters on campus.

The Trump administration canceled $400 million worth of grants and contracts to Columbia University, accusing the university of “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The administration sent a letter to Columbia interim President Katrina Armstrong on March 13, listing nine demands the university needed to comply with by last Thursday “as a precondition for formal negotiations” regarding federal funding.

Columbia’s response was closely watched by other schools that became flashpoints for pro-Palestinian protests last year. The university has come under intense scrutiny for its handling of pro-Palestinian protests, which led to arrests, property damage and backlash.

Former Columbia President Minouche Shafik resigned last August, months after the protests. She was the third Ivy League president to step down within a few months.

Harvard President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill previously announced their resignations following congressional testimony on the handling of antisemitism on campus.

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(HOUSTON) — Three teenagers allegedly attacked their mom and tried to stab her with kitchen knives because she turned off the Wi-Fi, according to authorities in Texas.

The three siblings — ages 14, 15 and 16 — “allegedly coordinated a plan to try and kill” their mother, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

Because the mom turned off the Wi-Fi, the teens allegedly grabbed kitchen knives Sunday night and chased their mother through their Houston home and into the street, according to the sheriff.

The mom was also hit with a brick, Gonzalez said, and their grandmother was knocked over while attempting to protect the mom.

The mother and grandmother were not seriously hurt, the sheriff’s office said.

The three siblings were arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and were booked in the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center, according to the sheriff’s office.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — Multiple incendiary devices were found at a Tesla dealership in Austin, Texas, on Monday morning, according to the Austin Police Department.

Officers located the “suspicious devices” after responding to a Tesla dealership on U.S. Route 183 just after 8 a.m. local time and called the Austin Police Department Bomb Squad to investigate, police said in a statement.

The devices were determined to be incendiary and were “taken into police custody without incident,” officials said.

The FBI said on Monday that a task force to address the incidents targeting Teslas has been established.

“The FBI will be relentless in its mission to protect the American people. Acts of violence, vandalism, and domestic terrorism — like the recent Tesla attacks — will be pursued with the full force of the law,” the FBI said in a statement to ABC News.

Austin police said it is an ongoing investigation, and had no further information to release at this time.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting in this investigation, according to a spokesperson for the agency, with the FBI leading the efforts.

Recent attacks aimed at Tesla dealerships, vehicles and charging stations have been reported in Las Vegas; Seattle; Kansas City, Missouri; and Charleston, South Carolina, as well as other cities across the United States since Tesla CEO Elon Musk began his role with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The bureau has received reports of 48 instances where Tesla dealerships, cars and charging stations have been targeted, a law enforcement source told ABC News.

The FBI said on Friday evening that incidents targeting Teslas have been recorded in at least nine states since January, including arson, gunfire and graffiti.

“These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night,” the FBI said in the public service announcement. “Individuals require little planning to use rudimentary tactics, such as improvised incendiary devices and firearms, and may perceive these attacks as victimless property crimes.”

The FBI urged the public to be vigilant and to look out for suspicious activity in areas around Tesla dealerships.

ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report

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(ANN ARBOR, Mich.) — Two alleged victims of Matthew Weiss are suing the former co-offensive coordinator for the University of Michigan’s football team, who was arraigned Monday on federal charges that allege he hacked into the accounts of thousands of athletes to access private information, including “intimate images.”

The federal lawsuit was filed a day after the Department of Justice announced Weiss had been indicted on two dozen federal charges alleging he hacked into thousands of athlete and alumni accounts and downloaded private data, including intimate photos, over eight years.

The plaintiffs, who are not identified by name in the lawsuit, are two former University of Michigan female athletes. One was a member of the university’s women’s gymnastics team who attended the school between 2017 and 2018, and the other was a member of the women’s soccer team who attended between 2017 and 2023, according to the lawsuit.

Citing the allegations in the indictment against Weiss, the lawsuit claimed that between 2015 and January 2023, the former coach unlawfully gained access to the social media, email and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 3,300 people, including the two plaintiffs, and then downloaded personal, intimate photos and videos. Weiss primarily targeted female college athletes, the indictment alleged.

ABC News has reached out to Weiss’ attorney for comment on the lawsuit and federal charges and has not gotten a response.

The University of Michigan and the Regents of the University of Michigan are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which alleged that as a result of their “recklessness and negligence,” Weiss downloaded the women’s “personal, intimate digital photographs and videos.”

The lawsuit alleges the university violated Title XI and that its “deliberate indifference to protection against the invasion of privacy for female athletes created a heightened risk of sexual harassment.”

“Plaintiffs are embarrassed, ashamed, humiliated, and mortified that their private information has been access[ed] by total strangers and third parties,” the lawsuit stated.

In response to the lawsuit, Kay Jarvis, the director of public affairs for the University of Michigan, said in a statement to ABC News, “We have not been served with the complaint and cannot comment on pending litigation.”

The lawsuit alleges that Weiss was able to gain unauthorized access to the student-athlete databases of more than 100 colleges and universities maintained by Keffer Development Services, LLC, a Pennsylvania-based company, and downloaded the personally identifiable information and medical data of over 150,000 athletes.

He is then accused of gaining access to the social media, email, and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 “targeted athletes,” including the plaintiffs, by guessing or resetting their passwords, according to the lawsuit.

“Once he obtained access to the accounts of targeted athletes, Weiss searched for and downloaded personal, intimate photographs and videos that were not publicly shared, including but not limited to Plaintiffs and others similar to them,” the lawsuit alleged.

Weiss illegally gained access to the accounts of more than 1,300 additional students or alumni from universities across the country, the lawsuit alleged.

Keffer is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which alleged that the company’s “misconduct, negligence, and recklessness also contributed to Weiss invading the privacy of Plaintiffs and their fellow student athletes.” ABC News has reached out to the company for comment.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the two plaintiffs and as a potential class action on behalf of other alleged victims. The number of potential class members is unclear but is estimated to exceed 1,000, the lawsuit stated.

Weiss, 42, was arraigned Monday on 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf, The Associated Press reported. His attorney, Douglas Mullkoff, declined to comment to the AP following the proceeding.

He was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond, ESPN reported.

If convicted, Weiss could face up to five years in prison on each count of unauthorized access and two years on each count of aggravated identity theft, according to the attorney’s office.
Michigan fired Weiss in January 2023. Athletic Director Warde Manuel said in a statement the termination came “after a review of University policies.”

Weiss acknowledged an “ongoing investigation” and told ESPN at the time of his firing that he was “fully cooperating.”

“I have nothing but respect for the University of Michigan and the people who make it such a great place,” Weiss tweeted after his firing. “I look forward to putting this matter behind me and returning my focus to the game I love.”

Weiss started his career at Michigan as a quarterbacks coach in 2021 and then became co-offensive coordinator as well the following year. Before that, he worked as a coach in various capacities for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens from 2009 to 2020.

ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The government has claimed that Palestinian protester Mahmoud Khalil intentionally misrepresented information on his green card application and therefore is inadmissible to the United States.

According to recent court filings, President Donald Trump’s administration said Khalil failed to disclose when applying for his green card last year that his employment by the Syria Office at the British Embassy in Beirut went “beyond 2022” and that he was a “political affairs officer” for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees from June to November 2023.

“Khalil is now charged as inadmissible at the time of his adjustment of status because he sought to procure an immigration benefit by fraud of willful misrepresentation of a material fact,” attorneys for the administration said in the filing.

The administration also claimed that Khalil did not tell the government that he was a member of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group.

The government arrested Khalil on March 8 after invoking a rarely used provision of immigration law that they said allows the secretary of state to revoke the legal status of people whose presence in the country could have “adverse foreign policy consequences.” The new accusations seem to represent an attempt to strengthen the administration’s justification for detaining Khalil and denying his release.

“Khalil’s First Amendment allegations are a red herring, and there is an independent basis to justify removal sufficient to foreclose Khalil’s constitutional claim,” the filing says.

“The additional charges the government filed last week are completely meritless,” Marc Van Der Hout, whose legal firm represents Khalil, told ABC News in response to a request for comment. “They show that the government has no case whatsoever on this bogus charge that his presence in the U.S. would have adverse foreign policy consequences. This case is purely about First Amendment protected activity and speech, and U.S. citizens and permanent residents alike are free to say what they wish about what is going on in the world.”

“Regardless of his allegations concerning political speech, Khalil withheld membership in certain organizations and failed to disclose continuing employment by the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he submitted his adjustment of status application. It is black-letter law that misrepresentations in this context are not protected speech,” the government said in the filing.

During a State Department briefing Monday, spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked multiple times about whether the department now viewed prior work for UNRWA as grounds for disqualification for visa applicants — but she repeatedly declined to answer.

“If you lie in your efforts to come to the United States to get a visa for any reason, or for a green card, maybe there haven’t been repercussions, or we haven’t done things properly in the past. A lot of things have changed with the election of Donald Trump,” Bruce said in a general statement during the briefing.

Khalil, a leader of the encampment protests at Columbia last spring, was taken upon his initial detention from his student apartment building to 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan and then to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before being transported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, according to his legal team.

ABC News’ Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.

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(SOLDOTNA, ALASKA) — Good Samaritans helped save stranded plane crash victims on Monday after their aircraft went missing over a mountain range in Alaska.

A Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser was reported overdue on Sunday night, according to the Alaska National Guard. The plane had taken off from Soldotna Airport in Soldotna, Alaska, earlier in the day on Sunday.

The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, a U.S. Coast Guard Super Hercules, Alaska State Troopers and Alaska National Guard launched a search effort but could not find it.

There was no emergency transmitter signal coming from the wreckage.

However, the Alaska National Guard told ABC News that a cellphone ping led searchers to believe the plane was near Tustumena Lake and the Kenai Mountains.

It was a civilian in an aircraft who wound up spotting the plane crash site on Monday.

Alaska officials said it was a testament to the strength of the community in Alaska that when an aircraft goes down, everybody takes to their planes and they go out and look.

One of the good Samaritans seeking the missing plane was Dale Eicher, who told ABC News that he was able to fly over the site of the crash approximately half an hour after it was first located and saw the survivors awaiting rescue.

An Alaska Army National Guard Blackhawk medivac variant with extended range, a hoist and a flight medic — part of the 207th Aviation Troop Command — went out to where the wreckage was spotted and found three people on the wing of the PA-12, which had seemingly broken the surface of a frozen body of water and had become partially submerged.

The National Guard told ABC News that the plane had missed the main lake; instead, the aircraft seems to have settled amid a glacial field and large body of water.

All three passengers on the plane survived the crash, were successfully rescued and were taken to a local hospital. There are no further updates on any injuries or what led to the crash.

ABC News’ Lena Camilletti contributed to this report.

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(DALLAS, TEXAS) — Weddings symbolize a future filled with tomorrows. However, for Dallas woman Laura Grillo, there would be no wedding, no honeymoon and no future.

Urged by her best friend, Heather Nabor, and maid of honor, Grillo followed the ritual in the bridal salon, ringing a handbell when she selected her dress.

“I remember we finally picked out her dress and that perfect outfit for the perfect day,” Nabor told “20/20” “Making the wish, ringing the bell, I kinda talked her into it. I’m glad I did that.”

She never got to wear it — just a week before her big day, around noon on Nov. 13, 2015, she was found lying in a pool of blood on her kitchen floor.

When officers and emergency service workers arrived, they discovered Grillo dead. A shell casing was found on the floor — Grillo had been shot.

“Inside the master bedroom there was a safe on the dresser, the door was open, and there was two plastic totes that were turned over on the bed,” Detective Jeff Freeman, who worked on the case, told “20/20.” “It didn’t look as far as burglary that was interrupted or anything like that. It just didn’t look right to me.”

Since Grillo’s fiancé, John Makris, was captured on surveillance video at a Home Depot store across town at the time she was killed, after interviewing him police determined he couldn’t have killed her.

Nonetheless, his behavior following Grillo’s death raised questions.

Originally from Greece, Makris was a contractor.

Detectives recalled what Makris said at the scene when they asked him who lived in the house — before he was told that Grillo had died.

“He stated that it was him, the kids, his mother and the victim’s brother,” Freeman said. “But he never did say the victim’s name. That was a huge red flag. Because maybe he knew a lot more of what was going on.”

After finding out that the wedding flowers were non-refundable, Laura’s best friend says he repurposed them for the funeral, and asked a neighbor to help scrub Grillo’s blood off the kitchen floor using Grillo’s own toothbrush.

Jesus Treviño, one of two employees seen with Makris on the morning Grillo was attacked, was questioned by investigators — and disappeared.

Treviño was ultimately located in the Clearwater, Florida, area and taken into custody by U.S. Marshals. Treviño refused to talk, so investigators turned to Makris’ other employee seen with Makris the morning of the murder, James Vileda.

During a four-hour interview, he gave a troubling account of a plot, a crime and a cover-up.

He told police he received a call from Treviño — an old friend — about a new job. Vileda said that the conversation quickly shifted from working on a construction job to becoming an accomplice in a murder.

Vileda claimed that Grillo’s death was not a robbery gone wrong. He said it was a murder for hire, orchestrated by the man Laura Grillo was just days away from marrying –her fiancé, Makris.

In September 2018, Makris was convicted on a murder-for-hire charge and sentenced to life in prison. Treviño was convicted of capital murder and received a life sentence, while Villeda pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for his testimony and got a 25-year sentence.

From prison, Makris tried to have custody of their daughter awarded to his mother, so she could raise her in Greece. He did not succeed, and she was adopted by Grillo’s best friend Nabor — the woman who would have been her maid of honor.

ABC News reached out to Makris at the Texas prison where he is serving his life sentence, but he declined our request for an interview.

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