Cross-country storm set to bring more snow to Northeast: Forecast
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The storm that brought heavy rain and mountain snow to the West Coast is making the trek across the country to bring a significant snowstorm to the Northeast this weekend.
The snow will first hit the upper Midwest on Friday. Up to 8 inches of snow is expected, with cold and blustery weather sticking around through the weekend in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin.
On Saturday, that storm combines with moisture streaming in from the South, enhancing the snow potential for a large portion of the Northeast.
Cities like Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Boston are all facing heavy snow from Saturday evening into Sunday morning.
A winter storm watch is in effect in the Northeast; there’s a high likelihood of 4 to 8 inches of snow. New York City is included in the winter storm watch, though the city will be right on the fringe of heavier snow to the north and much lesser amounts to the south.
Some spots in New England could see up to 1 foot of snow.
Then, next week, another storm could bring more snow and ice to the Interstate 95 corridor. Cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston are all looking at a potential winter storm Tuesday into Wednesday.
Solomon Henderson, a 17-year-old student, allegedly opened fire in the cafeteria at Antioch High School on Wednesday, killing 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante and injuring a 17-year-old, police said.
Henderson, who was armed with a pistol, then died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police said.
The injured 17-year-old boy suffered a graze wound and has since been released from the hospital, police said.
A motive is not known, police said Wednesday, but according to sources, Henderson left a substantial body of data online and on social media.
A Pinterest account linked to Henderson features photos of past school shooters, including the shooters from Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas, according to a source.
Henderson’s social media presence also shows he may have been in contact with 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who opened fire at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, last month, according to law enforcement sources.
Rupnow, who went by Samantha, also died after the shooting, in which two were killed and several wounded.
Rupnow’s account may have been following Henderson’s account at the time of the Wisconsin shooting in December, according to law enforcement sources.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Helena Skinner and Kerem Inal contributed to this report.
A “technical issue” briefly disrupted American Airlines flights nationwide early on Tuesday, the airline said, at the start of a busy Christmas Eve for travelers around the country.
The Federal Aviation Administration said American requested a ground stop for all its flights. An hour later, American said flights were again beginning to board and the FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop.
“We’re currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights,” the airline wrote in a post to X.
The post added, “Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we’ll have you safely on your way to your destination.” Replying to questions from other social media users, the airline said it was not able to estimate how long the fix would take.
The airline wrote that it didn’t yet have a “timeframe” but that “they’re trying to fix it in the shortest possible time.”
In a statement sent to ABC News, the airline added, “Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
The disruption will be unwelcome for a record number of Americans expected to travel across this holiday season. The Transportation Security Administration said it expects to screen nearly 40 million travelers from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2 — a 6.2% increase from 2023.
American Airlines said it was expecting Dec. 27 and Dec. 20 to be its busiest and second-busiest days, respectively, during its holiday period, which began on Dec. 18.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Ayesha Ali, Clara McMichael and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — After the Trump administration offered two million federal employees buyouts on Tuesday, Elon Musk — the world’s richest man and the architect of Trump’s effort to reduce the size of the government — took to his own social media platform to boast and joke about the offer, leaving some federal employees who spoke to ABC News dismayed.
By replying to an email sent out Tuesday, all full-time federal employees — with the exception of military personnel and postal workers — have the option to get eight months’ salary if they agree to leave their jobs.
“The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work,” the email sent to employees said, offering them what it called a “deferred resignation” from their positions.
Commenting on X, Musk laughed at a specific aspect of the offer, writing, “Hit ‘Send,'” accompanied by a screenshot of the letter to employees describing how to submit their resignation via email.
Musk’s attitude as he works to enact sweeping changes across the federal government — potentially impacting hundreds of thousands of career employees who have spent their lives working behind the scenes — is not lost on some workers, who told ABC News that the Trump administration and Musk’s tone have been “cruel” and “demoralizing.”
“It feels like the new administration thinks we are dirt and do nothing for the country,” said one 20-year federal employee who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution. “This is heartbreaking.”
According to a copy of the resignation letter posted by the Office of Personnel Management, federal employees have to acknowledge that the positions they vacate could be eliminated or consolidated, and their response to the buyout email may be used “to assist in federal workforce reorganization efforts.”
While employees are not expected to work during their deferred resignation period, resigning workers need to commit to a “smooth transition” out of their roles.
Bolstered by an executive order that would make it easier to fire career government employees, administration officials said they expect the reduction of the government workforce from the buyout and other executive actions to be “significant.”
Unprecedented in its scope and nature, the buyout appears to be one part of Trump’s sweeping approach to reducing the size of the government — using an approach that mirrors tactics used by Musk in the past. When Musk took over Twitter in November 2022, he similarly sent a company-wide email that gave workers an ultimatum: work harder or leave with severance. Yesterday’s email shared the same subject line — “A fork in the road” — that Musk used in his email.
As federal employees were digesting the terms of the buyout Wednesday, it was unclear exactly who was eligible for it and whether there would really be severance payments, which could be delayed by litigation.
Max Alonzo, national secretary-treasurer for the National Federation of Federal Employees, expressed skepticism about the terms of the resignations.
“Absolutely do not resign. There is nothing that says that the day that you resign, that they can’t just let you go. They don’t have to pay you — there’s nothing that says they have to pay you till September 30,” he said. “This is nothing that has been done before. This is not in our regulations. There’s no regs about it. We’re not even sure if it’s actually legal. This is about trying to cut the federal workforce down, really kind of just breaking down these pillars of democracy.”
Foreign service officers within the State Department received the “fork in the road” email, but so far, State Department officials have been unable to provide their 16,000-person workforce a clear answer on whether they’re eligible to take it, according to an official familiar with the matter. Even if staffers are deemed eligible for the buyouts, there’s concern that — if enough of them take the federal government up on its offer — it will have an impact on national security because of the sudden, drastic downsizing.
“The implications could be really scary,” said the official, who also asked not to be identified. “This could really do some damage.”
The sweeping approach appears to be one of the first monumental steps to reshape the government by Musk, who supported Trump’s election with $250 million in contributions and became one of Trump’s closest advisers.
When Trump first announced his plans to establish the “Department of Government Efficiency” in November, he framed it as an outside group that would advise the White House on how to make government more efficient. Two months later, when Trump actually established DOGE through an executive order, he took a different approach, giving Musk control of what used to be known as the United States Digital Service, a unit within the Executive Office of the President tasked with improving government websites.
In an executive order signed the same day, Trump also tasked the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to work with DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management to “submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.”
In addition to helming DOGE, Musk has extended his influence in the federal government by having his former employees and DOGE loyalists take on critical roles in other parts of government. Scott Kupor — Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Personnel Management. — thanked the president for the “opportunity to serve” the country by helping Musk, and OMP’s chief of staff Amanda Scales worked for Musk’s AI company as recently as this month.
To run the Office of Management and Budget, Trump tapped Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, who shares Musk’s desire for historic spending cuts and workforce reductions. Vought was a central figure in Trump’s attempt to categorize thousands of civil servants as political appointments, making it easier to fire employees without the protections given to civil servants. As one of his first acts in office, Trump signed an executive order to strip thousands of government workers of their employment protections.
The new hirings and executive orders represent the first steps in Musk’s plan for “mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy,” as he wrote in the Wall Street Journal in November.
“DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions,” wrote Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who recently departed DOGE to run for public office.
