Category: National

(WASHINGTON) — When unemployed marine biologist Lanny Flaherty poked his head into the ranger’s station at the Wallowa Whitman National Forest in the Pacific Northwest and asked to be a volunteer, he said it put him on a 13-year career path with the U.S. Forest Service that included stints as a botanist, a wildfire resource adviser and a range ecologist.

When he wasn’t researching the effects of vegetation on fire behavior or identifying fungi on national forest land, the 40-year-old Flaherty said he was a “red-card” carrying certified firefighter, helping battle some of the biggest wildland fires in the nation.

In 2016, he helped fight the Great Smoky Mountain wildfires, the largest arson blazes in Tennessee history, and in 2021, he helped extinguish the Dixie Fire that swept through five Northern California counties, scorching nearly a million acres and destroying more than 1,300 structures.

“I’m so proud of everything I’ve done,” Flaherty told ABC News. “Stumbling into the Forest Service was the first time in my life where I was like, ‘Oh, this fits. I’m running with it. This is me.'”

But while on assignment last week with a U.S. Forest Service fire engine crew in Louisiana restoring federal land and structures at the Kisatchie National Forest that had been devastated by hurricanes, Flaherty said his job came to an abrupt end.

As a probationary range ecologist, he was among several thousand probationary workers terminated from the U.S. Forest Service in the Trump administration’s sweeping reduction in the federal workforce being overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking to end up under the bus on what’s obviously a politically motivated illegal termination,” said Flaherty, whose two-year probationary period wasn’t scheduled to end until November of this year. “I mean, I’ve got 13 years’ worth of qualifications and I was cast aside as a probationary employee, despite having proven myself time and time again in a multitude of different positions.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, announced that 2,000 USFS “probationary, non-firefighting employees” were being let go. At least 1,000 probationary employees of the National Park Service, which is under the U.S. Interior Department, were also terminated, including those who worked as secondary firefighters.

“To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.

Rollins, according to the USDA statement, “fully supports the President’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people.”

“We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of the American people’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve people, not the bureaucracy,” the USDA statement reads.

‘These fires are going to get exponentially bigger’

While hosting a roundtable in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday with U.S. Forest Service wildland firefighters, Rollins praised their response to the devastating January wildfires in Los Angeles County that decimated the communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Following the meeting, the USDA released a statement, saying, Rollins is “committed to ensuring that the United States has the strongest and most prepared wildland firefighting force in the world to save lives and protect our beautiful homeland.”

But the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) told ABC News that the USFS cuts will severely weaken the agency’s ability to respond to wildfires.

Steve Gutierrez, NFFE’s national business representative, said that based on data the union requested from the USFS, the number of fired probationary non-fire personnel is about 3,400.

Flaherty said that in the past five years, 40% to 50% of his job was fighting wildfires as part of what the Forest Services refers to as “militias” comprised of trained secondary firefighters.

“When a fire breaks out, we’re out there like everybody else getting into the fray,” Flaherty said.

Gutierrez, a former USFS firefighter, told ABC News that the cuts affect about 10% of the U.S. Forest Service’s total workforce. He said many of the terminated employees held dual jobs, like Flaherty, including working as firefighters responding to all-hands-on-deck blazes throughout the country.

“When I say ‘non-fire personnel,’ we can’t totally think that they don’t ever touch fire, that they’re not important,” Gutierrez said. “They’re all part of this logistical machine that helps support fire. They’re either ecologists, they’re mechanics, they’re pilots, they’re water systems operators, they’re grants and agreements folks, they’re land management, minerals and geologists to help recovery efforts from the aftereffect of fire.”

He added, “They support all of what happens before fire, during a fire and after a fire.”

Gutierrez said some of the federal employees who got fired had just helped battle the Los Angeles fires just weeks ago.

“They just fought this fire in LA, one of LA’s most devastating wildfires that we’ve ever had and now they’re terminated because they have ‘poor performance,'” Gutierrez said. “It’s just crazy to me that you can be so utterly disrespectful and ultimately it’s a slap in the face to these brave men and women who have risked their lives for the American public.”

Making matters worse, Gutierrez said, is an imposed hiring freeze, which has stalled the annual task of “fuels management,” which means clearing federal lands of fire hazards like dead trees and overgrown brush.

“If we’re not able to get that process moving immediately, fires are not going to just be, like, small. These fires are going to get exponentially bigger. Communities are going to burn and people are going to die, and that’s what’s going to happen,” Gutierrez said. “It’s not going to be just a California problem. It’s going to be a United States problem. I mean, there are several states, New Jersey, for example, they had a fire every year, every month for the past year. There was a fire in New York, right there in Manhattan. It’s not going to stop. It’s a national issue.”

Almost stranded in Louisiana

Flaherty said that when he got a call in Louisiana from his forest supervisor relating that he was terminated effective immediately with no severance package, he was initially told he’d have to get his own transportation back to Oregon.

“He offered no solution whatsoever, despite being fully aware of the fact that I would be stranded in Louisiana and unable to make travel arrangements short of purchasing myself a ticket. I was not in Louisiana on my own time, I was there on official travel and his plan was to, I guess, just wing it,” Flaherty said.

Flaherty said his union, the NFFE, intervened and got the USFS to cover his transportation by temporarily rescinding his termination until it got him back to Oregon.

“It’s just really sad that the top of the food chain doesn’t understand the impacts of what they’re doing when they swipe their pen,” said Gutierrez, responding to Flaherty almost being stranded in Louisiana. “They don’t understand the complexities of the entirety of the government.”

Flaherty said the “insult still rings true even though I am back home.”

“To me, that just kind of sums up how callous and poorly thought out all of this is,” Flaherty said. “I have deep, deep concerns for the amount of stress that everybody has been put through in every agency, and it just continues. It’s harming people’s physical and mental well-being, and it’s criminal.”

‘Dream job’

Eric Anderson said that in June 2024 he landed a job as a biological science technician and lead fire effects monitor for the National Park Service, after working since 2021 as a seasonal employee.

“I spent two years, three years working as a temporary hire to keep my face seen, to improve my qualifications, to gain more experience. And now, I finally get into a position that I knew three years ago, OK, my predecessor, is probably going to be retiring. I think I can improve my qualifications and become useful to do that position. And I worked toward it, I applied, and I got the position.”

Like Flaherty, Anderson, 48, a married father of two high school-aged children, told ABC News that he was fired in what he called, “the Valentine’s Day massacre.”

“You finally get your dream job that you’ve been working toward for many years, and it just got pulled out from under you for politics,” said Anderson, who was stationed at the Indiana Dunes National Park on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.

He said he received his dismissal letter in his email inbox from an Interior Department administrator he had never met.

“The Department determined that you have failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the Department’s current needs, and it is necessary and appropriate to terminate, during the probationary period, your appointment to the position of BioScience Tech (Fire Eff. Monitor),” reads the dismissal letter Anderson shared with ABC News.

“This is a lie. This says I’m fired because of my performance and my inability to do the job and that I’m no longer needed. My performance evaluations are excellent, and I’m crucial to the program. I have qualifications that we need within our unit to function,” Anderson said. “It’s a bit maddening.”

A former Peace Corps volunteer from 2000 to 2002 in Kenya, East Africa, Anderson said he used to work as a consultant in the private sector and took a huge pay cut when he joined the NPS as a seasonal employee.

“My bosses worked really hard to justify that I should be kept on, noting that in my position description, yes, it says biological science technician, but if you just read down a few lines, you see the box checked that says wildland firefighter, which was supposed to be in the protected ones that weren’t getting fired,” Anderson said.

In his job as a biological science technician, he said he would collect plant samples for analysis and prepped parklands in the winter months for the fire season, eliminating hazardous fuels by conducting prescribed or controlled burns. His work also included rehabilitating burned land.

“When bulldozers come through trying to protect towns, someone has to put that back together. So, we worked very much on how do we keep this from washing down the mountain during the next atmospheric river,” Anderson said. “By mid-August or so, we’re pretty much done with our sampling at various parks around the Great Lakes that we go to, and then we are available to do wildland fire or help as collaterals for wildland fires,” Anderson said. “A lot of the people that were let go in the last week were also collateral firefighters.”

In September, Anderson worked on the front lines of the Line Fire that burned more than 44,000 acres in and around the San Bernardino National Forest and threatened the community of Highland, California. In August 2023, Anderson said he helped battle the Happy Camp Complex Fire, which burned more than 21,000 acres in the Klamath National Forest in Northern California’s Siskiyou County.

He just returned in January from conducting prescribed fires in the Florida Everglades.

“Maybe, this is that Peace Corps volunteer in me that looks for mission-driven work. I know that’s just my personality type. I need to be working somewhere that I feel it’s important,” Anderson said. “I very much want to go back and work for the place that I was just fired from. I live what I do. These are all very qualified, excellent people doing good work that needs to be done and they’re just slashed without any real cause.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Maui Police Department in Hawaii is investigating what led to a gas grill explosion at a Kaanapali Beach condo Thursday evening which left seven people injured.

The Maui Police Department, according to their statement, received reports of the explosion which took place at 2481 Kaanapali Parkway at approximately 6:15 p.m. and found seven people, from the ages 18 to 74, injured, ABC News’ Honolulu affiliate KITV reports.

Three of those seven people are currently in critical condition, and one had to be transported to the Maui Memorial Medical Center Emergency Room for further treatment, KITV said.

In livestream video obtained by ABC News, the explosion seemingly takes place in one of the middle floors of the condominium complex with beachgoers and other witnesses rushing toward the scene to help in the immediate aftermath.

Preliminary investigations suggest the explosion may have involved liquefied petroleum gas, commonly used for BBQs and, according to KITV, witness statements indicated there could have been a grill malfunction before the incident.

There are no further updates on the conditions of those involved and the public has been asked to avoid the area while first responders investigate.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday began laying off more than 6,000 new and newly promoted employees across the country, sources familiar with the planning told ABC News, as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to shrink the federal workforce that could have potential consequences for the current tax filing season.

The layoffs, impacting roughly 6%-7% of the agency’s 100,000-person workforce, began midday Thursday primarily outside the Washington, D.C., area, with thousands of employees facing layoffs at offices in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee, New York, and beyond, sources told ABC News.

As of Thursday morning, over 500 terminations were expected in Texas; over 600 in New York; over 400 in Georgia; and over 300 in each Florida, Tennessee, and Philadelphia, one source said.

Layoffs could continue into Friday at some IRS offices around the country if weather conditions prevent managers and employees from getting to work, according to an email sent to managers of probationary employees and obtained by ABC News.

The layoffs arrive in the middle of tax season as millions of Americans are filing their returns and hoping for timely refunds — but the exact impact on filing season is not yet clear.

Teams within the IRS being impacted by the layoffs include members of the small business/self-employed unit and clerks in various units, sources told ABC News.

Also impacted are members of the appeals team, whose role is to “resolve disputes, without litigation” with taxpayers, according to the IRS website, as well as employees with the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS that helps to “protect taxpayer rights” and advocate for taxpayers who have issues with the IRS or are experiencing financial hardship.

Ahead of the layoffs, the IRS combed through an initial list of approximately 15,000 probationary employees to try to ensure that no one being laid off this week plays a “direct” role in filing season, sources said. But there are still widespread concerns within the IRS that the firings could ultimately cause delays:

One former IRS commissioner told ABC News it’s “unrealistic” to think firings could occur during filing season and that the process would still run entirely smoothly.

“The bottom line: Forever, it has been an absolute rule of thumb that you keep things stable during filing season. Because it’s delicate,” the former commissioner said. “And the idea that nearly 10% of the entire IRS workforce is being laid off right in the middle of filing season is extremely risky.”

The former commissioner said filing season is like an assembly line with incoming and outgoing products: there are incoming tax forms and correspondence, and outgoing credits, refunds, and balance-due notices.

“There are layers of indirect support that go into that — that could be technology, other types of logistics, supply chains. If you lose that capacity, it will diminish productivity,” the former commissioner said. “Filing season is all hands on deck. Something could break down. You could need to surge resources to one area of service. Things don’t always go as planned at the assembly line.”

“We can expect Americans to experience a return to slower refunds, to longer waits on hold, to dropped calls,” Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, said on a call with reporters Thursday. “It’s going to be a real impact on customer service right as taxes are due this year.”

One probationary worker expecting to be fired told ABC News that “termination of probationary employees could prolong audits.”

Another agency official said morale at the IRS is “low” and that they expected remaining workers to “protest internally in ways that could impact filing season.”

On Thursday morning, a union representing IRS employees distributed a letter to members with instructions on what to do if they receive a termination letter.

“Print out everything in your Employee Personnel File that verifies when you started your job,” the email said. “Print last three paystubs and W-2. Print your annual appraisal. Keep your printed copies at home.”

An IRS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

Sources told ABC News that they expect further layoffs after tax season, and senior Trump administration officials have said that Trump wants to dismantle the tax-collecting agency entirely, which would require congressional approval.

“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News Wednesday night, referencing Trump’s proposal to create an “External Revenue Agency” to collect tariffs on foreign imports.

Experts say that abolishing the IRS would be extraordinarily difficult, and that it’s the sole government agency that collects the taxpayer money Trump is using to pay for his priorities, including border enforcement.

The IRS also would have to oversee any repayments to taxpayers envisioned by Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk, who recently floated the idea that Americans should receive a percentage of savings from the widespread government cuts.

“I love it. A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we’re saving by going after the waste, fraud and abuse and all of the other things that are happening,” Trump said this week. “I think it’s a great idea.”

The cuts come two years after the IRS received tens of billions of dollars in funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which the agency said helped it hire more customer service representatives — thereby cutting in half the average time needed to process taxpayer correspondence from 7 months to 3.5 months.

At the end of fiscal year 2024, the IRS employed a total of 100,433 people — including accountants, managers, lawyers and other staff — which was up from about 90,000 the year before.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Elizabeth Schulze contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — In a major ruling, the judge overseeing the case of the man charged with killing four Idaho college students in 2022 has denied a request to exclude potentially key DNA and other evidence from his upcoming capital murder trial.

Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger had sought to suppress DNA evidence that was seen as a linchpin of prosecutors’ case against him — evidence they say directly links Kohberger to the crime scene. In addition, lawyers sought to exclude data obtained from various online accounts like Apple, Google and Amazon belonging to Kohberger; his apartment in Washington; and his parents’ Pennsylvania home.

Judge Steven Hippler, in a sweeping series of rulings on Wednesday, denied the defense requests, paving the way for prosecutors to present to a jury their case against the former criminology Ph.D. student.

The judge ruled Kohberger’s constitutional rights were not violated, and that police behaved properly. He said the evidence investigators obtained throughout the investigation, which led them to Kohberger, is not tainted and can be admitted at trial.

“The Court finds suppression is not warranted on any of these issues,” Hippler wrote.

Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, then a student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed four University of Idaho students to death: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.

After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as the suspect, arresting him on Dec. 30, 2022, at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. He was indicted in May 2023 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The trial is set for August. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

On the critical DNA evidence, the judge wrote Kohberger’s lawyers “failed to demonstrate his constitutional rights were” violated by detectives’ use of the controversial new technique known as investigative genetic genealogy, which involves building out a family tree to zero in on a suspect.

The use of genetic genealogy helped point investigators in the direction of their suspect, using the DNA taken from a button snap on the sheath of a knife found at the crime scene. That sample was critical, police said, in cracking the case and later was shown to be a “statistical match” for Kohberger, authorities said. The murder weapon — police believe it to be a knife — has not been found.

The judge also said authorities did not act improperly collecting trash from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s parents, which yielded items with Kohberger’s father’s DNA that authorities said was confirmed to be a match with Kohberger’s cheek swab later.

The judge, setting out a detailed timeline, also cast aside the issues raised by Kohberger’s lawyers, who had argued the way he was arrested was unnecessarily aggressive.

“Law enforcement believed [Kohberger] was potentially destroying evidence from the vehicle that was related to the homicides” and they also knew he had a Glock handgun, “prompting a concern over officer safety,” the judge wrote.

That prompted them to descend on the home more swiftly and make the arrest “without incident in a bedroom,” the judge said.

While monitoring the home at 12:33 a.m. the night of his arrest, snipers “observed a kitchen light turn on and saw a taller, young, white male wearing a black hoodie standing near the glass sliding door leading out to the deck,” whom they were able to identify as Kohberger. About 20 minutes later the light came on in the garage and “lights flashed in the garage as if the vehicle was being locked or unlocked by a key fob.”

A few minutes later Kohberger “was seen in the kitchen of the home, this time wearing rubber gloves and handling a plastic baggie,” the judge wrote — adding, “It was 1:09 a.m. in the morning, a time when most people would not be removing items from their car with rubber gloves.”

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(HOUSTON) — The FBI became aware on Tuesday of threats that were communicated involving two teenage girls, ages 15 and 16, plotting what the FBI called a “mass casualty attack” using pipe bombs and guns targeting Memorial High School in Harris County, Texas, according to law enforcement sources.

The threats were specific and deemed concerning enough that the FBI threat mitigation team moved quickly.

At around 2:45 p.m. (CST) the FBI called local law enforcement partners in Montgomery County, Harris County and Spring Branch Independent School District, who simultaneously worked to locate the girls.

By 3:15 p.m., just 30 minutes after the FBI call, both girls were located and in custody, law enforcement sources said.

“I got the call from the FBI agent that we worked very closely with, provided me with the information that they deemed credible, as did I, immediately located the student, found exactly where she was and went to the school, and that’s when we detained her and began our interview process,” Spring Branch ISDF Chief Larry Baimbridge told ABC News.

Baimbridge said in this case, the system worked.

“This is a perfect example of state and federal law enforcement working together. This is exactly how this information, I think, should be handled and I’m grateful to the FBI that got us information right away and we were able to act on it very quickly,” Baimbridge told ABC News.

“This planned attack wouldn’t have been stopped without exceptionally close partnerships between FBI Houston, Spring Branch ISD Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, and Houston Police Department,” FBI Houston spokesman Connor Hagan said in a statement.

“We were able to take troubling information we received, conduct a rapid investigation, turn our results over to trusted local law enforcement partners, and ultimately save lives of innocent students,” Hagan said. “This type of situation is exactly why the FBI exists.”

The 16-year-old girl who is a student at Memorial High School is being held on a charge of making a terroristic threat, Baimbridge said.

The other student, a 15-year-old, is in custody in Montgomery County on an unrelated charge, according to a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office statement.

No firearms, bombs or bomb making materials were immediately recovered in Harris County, though the investigation is ongoing in both Harris and Montgomery Counties.

Last week, the FBI worked with police in Mooresville, Indiana to disrupt a possible mass shooting plot against a high school there after learning of threats posted online.

Said Hagan: “We have officers from dozens of local agencies embedded with our agents working these types of threats every day on our Threat Mitigation Team and other task forces. FBI agents and task force officers, who are federally deputized, are absolutely essential to keeping our communities safe.”

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(NEW YORK) — At least nine states from Georgia to Delaware are under snow and ice alerts as a winter storm moves east — with brutal, record-breaking cold temperatures in the Midwest and Central U.S. in the wake of the storm.

On Tuesday, the storm brought 11 inches of snow to Missouri, 8 inches to Kansas and more than 2 inches to Oklahoma, where freezing rain and sleet left dangerously slick roads.

Now, the storm has moved into the Mid-Atlantic with heavy snow in the forecast for southern Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina through Wednesday night. Up to 10 inches of snow is possible in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach areas of Virginia.

By Wednesday evening, heavy snow is expected to continue for southeastern Virginia, where the highest totals from the storm are expected. Very icy conditions are expected to continue for eastern North Carolina before pushing off the coast Wednesday night.

Airlines canceled roughly 700 flights on Wednesday. Charlotte, North Carolina; Dallas, Texas; and Nashville, Tennessee, have the most cancellations.

On Wednesday morning, the snow fell from Tupelo, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee, to Lexington, Kentucky. Schools in Nashville were closed on Wednesday.

In Kentucky, where severe flooding over the weekend led to 14 deaths, the new storm dropped 2 to 7 inches of snow.

In eastern Kentucky, some officials are unable to get equipment on the roads to clear the snow, Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday.

Further south, heavy rain was reported in New Orleans Wednesday morning.

South of Raleigh and into South Carolina, an icy mix is expected.

But behind the storm is an Arctic blast.

Many cities recorded record low temperatures Wednesday morning, including: minus 24 degrees in Rapid City, South Dakota; minus 15 degrees in Billings, Montana; 1 degree in Wichita, Kansas; and 2 degrees in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — is even colder, clocking in at minus 6 degrees in Dallas; minus 19 degrees in Oklahoma City; minus 19 degrees in Wichita; and minus 27 degrees in Minneapolis.

Extreme cold warnings are in effect from South Dakota to Texas. Wind chills Thursday morning will be 20 to 40 degrees below zero in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest. These extreme conditions could bring frostbite in as little as minutes.

The record cold temperatures will spread further south into the Gulf Coast on Thursday and Friday, with record lows possible in Dallas; Corpus Christi, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

It will warm up this weekend, and by next week, temperatures will climb to the 60s and 70s in the South.

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(KANSAS) — Andrew Lester, the Kansas City man who pleaded guilty to felony assault in the second degree for the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has died while awaiting sentencing, Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson announced on Wednesday.

“We have learned of the passing of Andrew Lester and extend our sincere condolences to his family during this difficult time,” Thompson said. “While the legal proceedings have now concluded, we acknowledge that Mr. Lester did take responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty in this case. Our thoughts remain with both families affected by this tragic incident as they continue their healing process.”

Lester, 86, was set to go on trial this week for shooting Yarl, a Black teenager who mistakenly knocked on his door, but ahead of the trial, Lester entered a guilty plea on Friday for felony assault in the second degree.

He was expected to be sentenced in this case during a hearing on March 7.

Second-degree assault, a Class D felony, carries with it the sentencing possibility of up to seven years in prison, Thompson said at a press conference after Friday’s hearing.

Lester was initially charged with one count of felony assault in the first-degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, in the shooting of Yarl, who mistakenly went to Lester’s Kansas City home after arriving at the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers from a play date on April 13, 2023.

Lester, who is white, shot Yarl in the head and right arm, saying he believed someone was trying to break into his house, according to a probable cause statement obtained by ABC News. He initially pleaded not guilty in 2023 and was released on a $200,000 bond.

Yarl was 16 at the time of the shooting and suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to his family.

Yarl’s family told ABC News in a statement Wednesday that “justice was never truly served.”

“The news of Andrew Lester’s passing brings a mix of emotions, but it does not bring justice,” Yarl’s family said.

“We remain committed to seeking a world where no child fears for their life because of their race, and no family has to endure what we have. Ralph’s story is far from over, and neither is our fight for justice,” the family added.

Yarl’s family previously told ABC News Live Prime’s Linsey Davis on Friday that they were not happy with the plea deal that Lester accepted.

“About two years ago, we knew Mr. Lester was guilty,” Yarl’s mother Cleo Nagbe told Davis on Friday. “We let him do what he wanted to do and waited two years after for him to show up and say, ‘I’m going to plead guilty to the lesser of the charges.’ So we’re sick of this. So let’s just move on and give this kid a chance to move on with his life and live on as a regular kid.”

Lester’s attorney, Steve Salmon, previously argued that his client’s mental and physical capacity was a factor in the case, postponing the initial trial date from Oct. 7, 2024 to Feb. 18, 2025. Salmon said the retired air mechanic had heart and memory issues, a broken hip and had lost over 50 pounds.

In November, the judge ruled that Lester was fit to stand trial after reviewing the results of a mental exam.

Yarl opened up about the shooting in an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts in July 2023, where he reflected on his recovery and the harrowing experience.

“He points [the gun] at me … so I kinda, like, brace and I turn my head,” Yarl told Roberts. “Then it happened. And then I’m on the ground … and then I fall on the glass. The shattered glass. And then before I know it I’m running away shouting, ‘Help me, help me.'”

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(WASHINGTON) — In the weeks since President Donald Trump has assumed office, more than 200,000 federal workers at more than a dozen agencies have had their roles eliminated.

The mass culling stems in large part from efforts by Elon Musk and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, which has sought to dismantle large swaths of the federal government.

Many of those fired have been classified as probationary employees, a status unrelated to job performance. While probationary employees can be recent hires — typically having served in their roles for under one or two years — the status can also apply to long-serving government employees who’ve changed roles or agencies.

In addition to those who’ve been fired, 75,000 federal workers have accepted buyouts.

Here are the agencies where workers are facing termination:

Department of Education

Dozens of “probationary employees” were let go from the Department of Education last Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the firings.

Dismantling the Department of Education was one of Trump’s key campaign promises. He has slammed the department as a “con job” that should be “closed immediately,” and has directed Musk to investigate the agency.

The Department of Education is the smallest cabinet-level agency with 4,400 employees. Another 1,400 employees work in the agency’s office of Federal Student Aid.

Department of Homeland Security

More than 400 employees at the Department of Homeland Security have had their positions eliminated, officials said. About half of the cuts were in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which saw over 200 dismissed.

The firings at FEMA came after Musk slammed federal spending on what he misleadingly called “luxury hotels” for undocumented immigrants.

In addition to the cuts at FEMA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) lost 130 staffers, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and DHS Science and Technology had smaller degrees of cuts.

Department of Energy

Roughly 2,000 people have been fired from the Department of Energy, including at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

One of the terminated employees, Krzan Matta, told ABC News the firings were conducted in a “haphazard” and “arbitrary” manner.

“There’s no consideration for the mission. There’s no consideration for whether or not this position is critical,” he said.

United States Agency for International Development

As part of Trump and Musk’s stated objective of shuttering the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), more than 10,000 staffers have been placed on leave, multiple sources told ABC News.

Roughly 600 USAID workers remain in their roles.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has also been targeted by Trump and Musk, who have said they plan to gut the 1,700-employee consumer watchdog agency.

On Friday, government lawyers representing the agency’s acting director reached an agreement to temporarily hold off on firing CFPB workers while a lawsuit challenging the dismantling of the agency makes its way through court.

Department of Veterans Affairs

More than 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs employees have been dismissed from their roles, the agency said Thursday.

In a statement, the department said the cuts were part of the “government-wide Trump Administration effort to make agencies more efficient, effective and responsive to the American People.”

Department of Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has also faced significant cuts — including to the U.S. Forest Service, which manages wildfire response and prevention.

Among those who lost their jobs was Carly Arata, who told ABC News she had been a probationary employee at the Natural Resources Conservation Service since September, but worked as a contractor in the role for a year before that.

Arata developed conservation plans for farmers in Georgia and helped them get federal funding.

“These poor farmers. … It’s like I abandoned them, and that’s not the case at all,” Arata said. “They were amazing and cared so much about their land, and I wanted to help them preserve that.”

Environmental Protection Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency has fired 388 probationary employees, Reuters reported.

Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services has also lost thousands of employees, including at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the Associated Press.

About 700 workers were fired from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), multiple sources told ABC News.

At least 16 of the CDC cuts were to members of the World Trade Center Health Program, which critics said could put the health of 9/11 first responders at risk.

Department of the Interior

About 2,300 people have been fired from the Department of the Interior, according to Reuters.

Approximately 800 of those terminations were reportedly from the Bureau of Land Management.

Another 1,000 workers were fired from the National Park Service, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

Department of Homeland Security

At least 405 employees have been cut from the Department of Homeland Security, a DHS official told ABC News.

The bulk of the cuts were at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which saw over 200 people cut, and then the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which saw 130 people cut. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services saw under 50 people cut, and DHS Science and Technology Directorate saw 10 people cut.

Additionally, 12 Coast Guard members who work on diversity, equity and inclusion were affected by the reduction in force, with an offer to support border security efforts at the southwestern border.

Office of Personnel Management

The Office of Personnel Management — which serves as the federal government’s HR agency, and has been overseeing the mass reductions process — has also faced cuts of its own staff.

About 200 probationary employees were told they were being fired in a prerecorded message that instructed them to “gather your personal belongings and exit the premises,” according to an audio recording of the call obtained by ABC News.

General Services Administration

The General Services Administration has also had its staff reduced, with Reuters reporting more than 100 people were laid off.

Small Business Administration

About 720 employees at the Small Business Administration have lost their jobs, Politico reported, reducing its headcount by about 20%.

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(MARANA, Ariz.) — Two people were confirmed dead after two small planes collided midair at Marana Regional Airport in Arizona on Wednesday.

There were two people onboard each aircraft, a Lancair and a Cessna, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The aircrafts collided while upwind of runway 12, according to preliminary information from the National Transportation Safety Board.

“The Cessna landed uneventfully; the Lancair impacted terrain near runway 3 and a post-impact fire ensued,” according to the NTSB.

The planes collided around 8:30 a.m. local time.

The FAA and NTSB will investigate, and NTSB investigators are on their way to the scene with two more on the way, officials said.

The Marana Regional Airport is an uncontrolled field — it does not have an operating ATC control tower. Pilots utilize a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency to announce their position to other aircrafts. The pilot in command is responsible for maintaining a safe distance from other aircrafts.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Department of Transportation said the Federal Highway Administration has “terminated approval” of New York City’s congestion pricing plan, the first of its kind in the nation, which went into effect earlier this year.

The DOT shared a letter from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in which he said a review found that the “scope of this pilot project as approved exceeds the authority authorized by Congress” under the Federal Highway Administration’s Value Pricing Pilot Program.

“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” Duffy said in a statement on Wednesday. “Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It’s backwards and unfair.”

In response to the letter, a New York state official said that whatever the Trump administration intends, the state will fight in court to preserve congestion pricing.

The congestion pricing plan, which launched on Jan. 5, newly charged passenger vehicles $9 to access Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours as part of an effort to ease congestion and raise funds for the city’s public transit system. During peak hours, small trucks and charter buses were charged $14.40 and large trucks and tour buses $21.60.

On Donald Trump’s first day in office, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy asked the president and his administration to “reexamine” the highly debated congestion pricing plan and its impact on the Garden State.

In a letter to Trump, Murphy requested that “New York’s congestion pricing scheme receive the close look it deserved but did not receive from the federal government last year.”

In his letter to Hochul, Duffy noted that Trump asked him to review the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of the congestion pricing program upon assuming his position as secretary last month.

“In particular, the President expressed his concerns about the extent of the tolling that was approved by the Department of Transportation on highways that have been constructed with funds under the Federal-aid Highway Program and the significant burdens on the New York City residents, businesses, and area commuters (including those from New Jersey and Connecticut) who regularly use the highway network in the CBD tolling area,” Duffy said.

Duffy also mentioned Murphy’s letter to Trump, in which the governor “expressed significant concerns about the impacts that the imposition of tolls” on New Jersey commuters and residents.

The secretary also said there are pending legal challenges over the plan “which question whether the scope of the project exceeds the authority of VPPP.”

Duffy said the Federal Highway Administration will contact the New York State Department of Transportation “to discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations under this terminated pilot project.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which manages the city’s subways as well as bridges and commuter rails, has said the toll would enable it to issue $15 billion in bonds to help fund capital projects.

In response to Murphy’s letter to Trump, Hochul told reporters that if the congestion pricing plan is ultimately killed, “that comes with $15 billion more” the federal government will need to give to New York.

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