Coldest air of the season, snow to hit parts of the Northeast
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Before temperatures get warmer in the East next week, brutal cold is expected this weekend — the coldest of the season, so far, for parts of the Northeast.
Some of the coldest areas will also see accumulating snow to usher in the arctic blast.
On Friday morning, a quick snow shower will move through Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, blanketing the states in a dusting to 2 inches of snow.
Friday afternoon, snow will fall from eastern Kentucky through western Pennsylvania.
On Friday evening, scattered snow will be across Appalachia, from the Smoky Mountains to upstate New York. Up to 2 inches of snow is possible for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
On Saturday, snow will fall over New England — mainly for all areas north of New York City — though some flurries or light snow may reach the city, leading to a dusting to an inch of snow there. Boston could see an inch or two of snow.
Higher snow totals are expected in New England, where 2 to 4 inches are possible for the eastern I-90 corridor, including Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Erie to near Cleveland.
This low to moderate impact winter storm will usher in another cold blast along with very windy conditions leading to brutal wind chills across the region.
These same areas seeing the most snow will also be under strong wind gusts, with wind chills plummeting to 30 below zero. An extreme cold watch is in place from Friday night through Sunday morning.
In parts of northeastern New York, such as Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, wind chills could drop to -35 degrees, which would cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.
High temperatures in New York City will only reach the 20s on Saturday and the teens on Sunday. The lows will drop into the single digits for Sunday morning. Wind chills during the daytime this weekend will be mainly at or below zero due to gusts up to 50 mph on Saturday and gusts up to 30 mph on Sunday. Sunday morning wind chills could reach -15 in the city.
Boston and Buffalo, New York, could feel like the negative teens on Sunday morning and the negative single digits on Monday morning.
Next week, a slow pattern change is expected, with average to even above average temperatures possible for the East by the middle and end of next week. It will still be chilly, but given the brutal cold we have all been enduring, it might feel downright balmy.
Director and actor Timothy Busfield looks on before a hearing in the Second District Judicial Court at the Bernalillo County Courthouse on January 20, 2026 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sam Wasson/Getty Images
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — A grand jury has indicted actor Timothy Busfield on child sex abuse contact charges after his arrest last month, according to officials.
Busfield is facing multiple counts of criminal sexual contact of a child, according to Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman.
“District Attorney Sam Bregman emphasized that protecting children remains a top priority for his office. The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office remains committed to doing everything possible to protect children and ensure justice for victims,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement Friday.
Columbia University. (Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A Columbia University student who was detained by Department of Homeland Security agents Thursday morning after the school claimed agents allegedly made “misrepresentations” to enter a dorm was released later in the day after New York City’s mayor spoke with the president.Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Thursday afternoon that President Donald Trump informed him that the student, Elaina Aghayeva, would be “released immediately” after the mayor said he spoke with the president.
Previously, following the Mamdani’s meeting, Claire Shipman, the school’s acting president, sent a letter to the school community informing them that the DHS agents entered an unspecified dorm on the campus around 6:30 a.m. and detained the student.
“Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person.’ We are working to gather more details,” she said.
A statement from a DHS official identified Aghayeva as an Azerbajani native, and alleged her “student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes.”
“The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment. She has no pending appeals or applications with DHS,” the statement further said.
The statement did not address the allegations that DHS agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building.
Mamdani, who met with Trump at the White House Thursday, posted a statement on social media in the afternoon in which he said he spoke with the president about the incident.
“In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elaina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning. He has just informed me that she will be released imminently,” Mamdani said.
Aghayeva made a story on her Instagram page shortly after Mamdani’s announcement, in which she expressed gratitude for the support.
“I just got out a little while ago. I am safe and okay. In an uber (on the way) back home,” she said. “I am so sorry, but I am in complete shock over what happened.”
Aghayeva was seen by ABC News exiting a vehicle and entering building. She did not give a statement.
An attorney representing Aghayeva filed a petition in federal court Thursday asking a judge to order her release.
Carl Hurvich said in court documents that the student was unlawfully detained and was being held “without justification.”
The habeas petition said agents “represented they were searching for a missing person to gain entry” and did not have a warrant for Aghayeva’s arrest. Hurvich requested a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from transferring Aghayeva outside of New York.
Aghayeva is described in court documents as an undergrad student at Columbia’s School of General Studies pursuing a degree in neuroscience and political science. She entered the U.S. around 2016 on a visa, the filing says.
Protests took place on the school’s campus on Thursday following the news of the student’s detention, but there were no reported incidents or arrests.
The school was “working to reach the family, and providing legal support,” the Shipman said in her letter.
“It is important to reiterate that all law enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas of the University, including housing, classrooms, and areas requiring CUID swipe access,” the letter said.
“If law enforcement agents seek entry to non-public areas of the University, ask the agents to wait to enter any non-public areas until contacting Public Safety,” Shipman wrote. “Public Safety will contact the Office of the General Counsel to coordinate the University’s response. Do not allow them to enter or accept service of a warrant or subpoena.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released a statement condemning the federal agents’ alleged actions.
“Let’s be clear about what happened: ICE agents didn’t have the proper warrant, so they lied to gain access to a student’s private residence,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler echoed the governor’s statement.
“Law enforcement agents should not, under no circumstance, misrepresent their identity to gain entrance into a residence. These actions do not keep us safe, they only sow distrust and fear into our community. ICE is terrorizing our neighbors and ripping students from their homes,” Nadler said in a statement, in part. “We are doing everything in our power to help bring the student home.”
Thursday’s incident is not the first encounter between the Trump administration and Columbia.
Last year, pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and held for 104 days on immigration charges.
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz issued an order on June 20 granting Khalil’s release on bail after determining that he presented neither a danger nor a flight risk and that extraordinary circumstances justified his temporary release while his habeas case proceeded.
The federal government has been appealing its case against Kahlil, a green card holder.
Columbia also reached a $200 million agreement with the Trump administration last July, after it threatened to remove federal funding over what it called Columbia’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
Cancer patient Ofelia Torres holds up her baby photos, some of the include her father Ruben Torres-Maldonado. (ABC News)
(CHICAGO) — A Chicago teen who fought for her father’s release from immigration detention while she was battling stage 4 cancer, has died, a representative for her family says.
Ofelia Torres died Friday at age 16, according to the family representative. The cause of death was metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
Torres grabbed the national spotlight last fall after her undocumented father, Ruben Torres-Maldonado, was detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” Torres posted a video on social media calling for his release, and was also interviewed on ABC News’ “Nightline.”
A representative for Torres’ family said that just three days before she died, an immigration judge ruled that her father was conditionally entitled to receive cancellation of removal, which could provide a pathway to a green card. Torres watched the hearing virtually, the family said.
In the “Nightline” interview last fall, Torres said she initially tried to keep her cancer diagnosis private, but said she was speaking out to defend her father.
“I need the world to know my dad’s story and if that means letting the world know I have cancer, so be it. I don’t care,” she said. “I need my dad.”
In a statement, Kalman Resnick, the attorney representing Torres’ father, said: “Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father. We mourn Ofelia’s passing, and we hope that she will serve as a model for us all for how to be courageous and to fight for what’s right to our last breaths.”
Torres-Maldonado was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a Home Depot in Niles, Illinois, outside Chicago on Oct. 18 before being released on bond about two weeks later.
Resnick, who represented Torres-Maldonado, told reporters at a press conference last fall that federal agents surrounded Torres-Maldonado’s truck, smashed a window and dragged him into a vehicle at gunpoint.
At the time, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin alleged that Torres-Maldonado had backed into a government vehicle while attempting to flee.
DHS maintained Torres-Maldonado was a “criminal illegal alien” with a history of driving without insurance, driving without a valid license and speeding.
In the “Nightline” interview Torres said that despite how her father was treated, she had “nothing but love” for the federal agents who arrested her father.
“To the ICE agents who smashed my dad’s window, to the ICE agent who pointed a gun at my dad, I’m not mad at you … I just want you to know that that was not the right thing to do,” she told ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos.
