FBI investigating large drones spotted in New Jersey
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(MORRIS COUNTY, N.J.) — The FBI is investigating after large drones were spotted flying over central New Jersey over the last two weeks.
The “cluster of what look to be drones and a possible fixed wing aircraft” have been recently sighted along the Raritan River, the FBI said.
Larger than the typical drones used by hobbyists, the devices have raised questions due to their proximity to both a military installation and President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course, officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed drone flight restrictions while authorities investigate.
Local police have said there is no known threat to public safety.
“Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon would like to inform everyone that the recent drone activity observed by many in our communities is being actively investigated. There is no advisable immediate danger to the public at this time,” the Morris County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Anyone with information about the drones is being asked to contact law enforcement.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden, former presidents and other dignitaries are gathering Thursday for a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., to honor the life of former President Jimmy Carter.
Biden is expected to deliver a eulogy for Carter, who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
An emotional, weeklong goodbye
The emotional, weeklong public goodbye to former President Jimmy Carter began on Saturday when a motorcade carried his remains from his hometown of Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta.
Family, friends and employees of the Carter Presidential Center congregated at the center in Atlanta for a Saturday afternoon ceremony. Carter’s son Chip Carter addressed the mourners and thanked his late parents for their service and sacrifice.
The public was then invited to pay their respects at the Carter Presidential Center from Saturday through Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Carter’s body was transported Washington, D.C., and a service was held at the Capitol. Carter lied in state at the Capitol on Wednesday.
On Thursday afternoon, following the Washington National Cathedral funeral, Carter will return to his hometown of Plains for a private service and private interment.
Motorcade makes emotional stop at Navy Memorial
Former President Jimmy Carter’s motorcade made an emotional stop at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., to honor Carter’s service as a lieutenant in the Navy.
Carter’s childhood dream was to be in the Navy and he went on to graduate from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. Carter resigned from the Navy in 1953 after his father’s death so he could return to the family farm.
Carter’s casket was transferred from the hearse to a horse-drawn military caisson for a funeral procession that reproduces the walk Carter took with his family on the day of his inauguration. On that January day in 1977, Carter walked the mile-and-a-half inaugural parade route to the White House, rather than ride in a limousine, bringing a common touch to his presidency.
Navy officers stood silently along the snow-lined street, witnessing the casket’s transfer to the caisson.
The Carter family will walk behind the casket as it heads from the U.S. Navy Memorial to the U.S. Capitol.
Motorcade leaves Joint Base Andrews
Former President Jimmy Carter’s motorcade has left Joint Base Andrews in Maryland en route to Washington, D.C., to begin several days of services in the nation’s capital.
Carter lands in DC
A plane carrying the Carter family and the casket of former President Jimmy Carter has landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for several days of ceremonies in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Navy Memorial will be the first stop for the motorcade to honor Carter’s service as a lieutenant in the Navy.
Carter en route from Georgia to DC
The Carter family is accompanying former President Jimmy Carter’s remains on a flight from Georgia’s Dobbins Air Reserve Base to Washington, D.C. for the late president’s final journey to the nation’s capital.
“Hail to the Chief” was played and troops fired a 21-gun salute after the coffin was taken out of the hearse. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was among the officials at the base to witness the coffin’s transfer from the hearse to the plane.
Carter is survived by four children — John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff) and Amy Lynn — and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The flight will land in the D.C. area around 2 p.m.
The late president’s first stop in snowy D.C. will be the U.S. Navy Memorial to honor his time in the service.
That will be followed by a 4:30 p.m. ET service at the U.S. Capitol, which will be
Carter leaves Carter Presidential Center for final time
Former President Jimmy Carter is leaving the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta for the final time Tuesday morning as Carter Center employees and their families look on.
The former president had been lying in repose at the center since Saturday, allowing the public to come pay their respects.
At a Saturday service at the Carter Presidential Center, Carter’s son Chip Carter thanked his parents for their service and sacrifice.
“The two of them together changed the world,” he said, overcome with emotion.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded the Carter Center after his presidency to improve health around the world and enhance freedom and democracy.
Carter to head to DC for services at Capitol, Washington National Cathedral
Former President Jimmy Carter’s remains will be escorted from the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for the 39th president’s final trip to the nation’s capital.
His remains will leave the Carter Center at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The first stop in D.C. will be the U.S. Navy Memorial in honor of the former president’s service.
At 4:30 p.m. ET, members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs and other officials will congregate at the U.S. Capitol for a lying in state ceremony. Vice President Kamala Harris, Senator Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson are expected to deliver eulogies and lay wreaths.
Carter’s remains will lie in state at the Capitol from Tuesday evening to Thursday morning, allowing the public to pay respects.
On Thursday morning, former presidents and other dignitaries will attend a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral. President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy.
On Thursday afternoon, Carter’s body will return to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, for a private service and private interment. Carter will be buried next to his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, who died on Nov. 19, 2023, at the age of 96.
(NEW YORK) — Trevell Coleman, known professionally in the rap music world as G. Dep, is best known for his hit songs ‘Special Delivery’ and ‘Let’s Get It’. But his success was overshadowed by the overwhelming guilt he felt for shooting a man in 1993 and he decided one day in 2010 that he could no longer bear that burden.
Coleman, who joined P. Diddy’s Bad Boy Records in 1998, was only 18 years old when he shot a stranger, in the chest with a .40-caliber handgun near the James Weldon Johnson Houses, located on Park Avenue and E. 114th Street in Harlem.
The case remained cold for 17 years until Coleman made the shocking decision to confess to his crime.
“I think I was just at a point, you know, where it was like enough is enough,” Coleman told ABC News’ Deborah Roberts from prison in 2013.
Coleman said he ambushed the man during an attempted robbery and then fled the scene. He wondered for years whether the man had survived the shooting. After a weeklong trial in 2012, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
At the end of 2023, after serving more than 13 years, G. Dep was shown mercy. With the original prosecutor’s and judge’s support, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul granted him clemency.
He walked free in April 2024.
“It’s still things that I have to,” Coleman said. “You know, I would like to give back to the society.”
Coleman, at 50, is searching for a new beginning. He earned an associate’s degree in prison and has the support of his wife, Laticia, and his adult children.
Coleman now works in music production at SCAN-Harbor, a nonprofit organization serving at-risk children and families in Harlem and the South Bronx.
He speaks to young people and shares his story to motivate them to avoid a life of crime, emphasizing the importance of staying out of prison.
“You take somebody’s life like, what do you do to make up for that,” Coleman told SCAN-HARBOR youth. “But, you know, all you can do is make steps toward it, you know, making it better.”
While he now tries to help guide vulnerable kids down the right path, Coleman understands the harsh reality that many end up in prison — some even for life.
“Yeah, he did something wrong,” Lew Zuchman, Scan-Harbor executive director, said. “But… that his conscience, which moved him to turn himself in, is very special to me. And I’m hoping that he can… really share this and explain this to our young people.”
Federal and state officials have debated suitable sentences for youth offenders who have committed violent crimes, as has the Supreme Court in a series of rulings.
In 2012, Miller v. Alabama found that mandatory life without parole for juvenile homicide offenders was unconstitutional. Four years later, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Montgomery v. Louisiana that the 2012 Miller v. Alabama decision should apply retroactively to juvenile offenders sentenced to life without parole.
Since the rulings, more than 1,000 juvenile lifers have been released. As of today, 28 states and Washington, D.C., have banned such sentences.
“I was a follower in a way,” Coleman said. “Like, I learned that, you know, I wasn’t really thinking and I wasn’t really being an individual.”
While Coleman and others were given a second chance, youth in other states have more challenges. Pennsylvania is one of the states where regulations for young offenders remain among the strictest, making advocacy even more imperative.
Pennsylvania had the highest number of so-called “juvenile lifers” of any state at the time of Miller v. Alabama, with the majority coming from Philadelphia.
In Pennsylvania, children as young as 10 can be charged, prosecuted, and convicted as adults. This is something that John Pace, a senior reentry coordinator at the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project, highlights.
At the age of 17, Pace was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree homicide. He served 31 years and earned a college degree while incarcerated.
“The ’80s was a time period in which the war on drugs was very prevalent,” Pace said. “It made it easy for legislators to create laws that would make it easy to prosecute young people as adults.”
Pace now helps mentor incarcerated youth through the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project. One of those youths is 26-year-old Raequan Deal, born and raised in Philadelphia. In 2016, when he was 17, Deal was convicted of two felonies and served a total of twenty-two months in an adult county jail.
While incarcerated, Deal found support from the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project, an organization dedicated to preventing children like him from being placed in adult jails and prisons and advocating for the release of “juvenile lifers.”
“Being in jail was no fun place, it can make or break you. Luckily it made me, you know,” Deal said. “So I kind of see though I went to prison, I came out as a better person.”
(LOS ANGELES) — As strong winds in Southern California pick up further early on Tuesday, a “particularly dangerous situation” with a red flag warning will go into effect in western Los Angeles County and most of Ventura County, weather officials said.
The warning begins at 4 a.m. local time. Winds are forecast to gust between 45 mph to 70 mph, with relative humidity as low as 8%.
Those strong winds and dry conditions are likely continue to fuel the historic wildfires raging in Southern California.
The largest, the Palisades Fire, has spread by late Monday to almost 24,000 acres with only 14% containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Thousands of firefighters are battling the blazes across 45 square miles of densely populated Los Angeles County.
Winds overnight and early on Tuesday have been gusting up to 67 mph in the mountains near Los Angeles. The West San Gabriel Mountains have seen gusts up to 67 mph, with the Central Ventura County Valley hit about 66 mph.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the gusty Santa Ana winds will come in periods.
The strongest gusts are expected Tuesday morning and early afternoon, which will then be followed by a break in the evening. More gusty winds are expected Wednesday morning.
It has been so dry that any spark could produce major fire that would grow explosively. The weather in Los Angeles last year and early this year has been the second-driest water year on record to date. Water years are recorded from Oct. 1 to Sept. 2, with records going back to 1877.
After Wednesday, winds will begin to calm down and by Friday and Saturday humidity will come up a bit. There a very small chance for a rain shower Friday into Saturday across southern California.
