Harvey Weinstein taken back to hospital in New York City, lawyer says
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(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein has been taken back to New York City’s Bellevue Hospital for “emergent treatment due to an alarming blood test result that requires immediate medical attention,” his attorney, Imran Ansari, said in a statement.
“It is expected that he will remain there until his condition stabilizes,” Ansari said.
The disgraced film producer is being held at Rikers Island while he awaits a new trial on sexual assault charges.
Weinstein has been diagnosed with illnesses including leukemia, according to his associates.
Weinstein is suing New York City and its Department of Correction, alleging negligence and failure to provide adequate care.
Ansari said Weinstein “has been suffering from a lack of adequate medical care and enduring deplorable and inhumane conditions on Rikers Island.”
Weinstein’s spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, said the “mistreatment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.”
(LOS ANGELES) — The wildfires burning across the Los Angeles area have ravaged thousands of structures, with the Eaton Fire destroying generations of homes in Altadena. One woman’s house was the only one on her block to survive.
Debbie Slavin told ABC News on Monday about how her house avoided catching fire when the first six houses on her block were burned to the ground.
“When the fire burned the fence, it also burst the pressurized water pipe,” Slavin said. “I honestly believe that’s what put the fire out on that fence.”
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst fires have burned over 38,000 acres. More than 12,000 structures, including homes and places of worship, have been destroyed, and officials expect further damage in the coming days.
The Eaton Fire has burned over 14,000 acres.
When Slavin returned to her neighborhood in Altadena to see Eaton’s damage, she got emotional.
“I got a call from my neighbor down the street whose also, house has survived, and he basically shared with me that there was still smoldering on my front lawn and that he was going to go ahead and, and spray it,” Slavin said. “And when I got there, it also was still smoldering, so I went ahead and also put more water on it.”
Altadena is a community in which many families have made their homes for decades. According to Slavin, the community members were close and organized gatherings.
Slavin, who still can’t get back to her home, mentioned that one of her neighbors had even gone to check on her house while she was away to ensure it was still locked. She cherishes the trust and care that neighbors have for one another, and feels emotional seeing her friends’ homes getting destroyed while hers remains safe.
“I don’t know what it’s going to look like in the future,” Slavin said about her community. “And that’s also what’s so heartbreaking. I’ve had some great friends lose their homes. And you have to ask yourself why my home and why not the ones across the street.”
(NEW YORK) — In its first note of the day, the jury in Daniel Penny’s manslaughter and negligent homicide trial reported that it is “unable to come to a unanimous vote” on whether Penny committed second-degree manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man, on the New York City subway.
“We the jury request instructions from Judge Wiley. At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on court one,” the note said.
Since the jury got the case on Tuesday, they have deliberated for more than 18 hours.
Penny, a 25-year-old former Marine, put Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, in a six-minute-long chokehold after Neely boarded a subway car acting erratically, according to police. Witnesses described Neely yelling and moving erratically, with Penny’s attorneys calling Neely “insanely threatening” when Penny put Neely in a chokehold.
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.
Penny pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and negligent homicide charges.
The verdict form asks the jury to decide the first count – second-degree manslaughter – before potentially moving to the second count of criminally negligent homicide. Only if it finds Penny not guilty on the first count, can it consider the second count of criminally negligent homicide.
Judge Maxwell Wiley proposed giving the jury an Allen charge, encouraging them to continue deliberating despite the deadlock. He is giving the lawyers time to consider the next steps.
“It would be a crazy result to have a hung jury just because they can’t move on to the second count?” prosecutor Dafna Yoran said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The college financial aid application used by millions of American families is now officially open for the 2025-2026 school year — 10 days ahead of schedule.
Top officials from the Department of Education said on a call with reporters Thursday they’re “confident” in this year’s FAFSA form after the botched rollout of a new form last year led to delays and glitches for students seeking financial aid.
What do I need to know about applying for financial aid?
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form is the main gateway for students and their families to qualify for financial aid through the federal government. It helps determine access to aid packages from colleges and universities, Pell grants and other loans.
The first step is for students and their parents to create an FSA ID, which can take several days to be approved. The application itself should then take about 15 minutes to complete, Department of Education officials estimated to ABC News. Though last year officials were overly optimistic about the timeline to fill out the form.
Most of the information required on the application are basic questions like your name, address and schools you are interested in attending, officials said.
The FAFSA must be completed every year students are enrolled in school.
Why was last year’s FAFSA rollout such a disaster?
In 2023, the Department of Education overhauled the form for the first time in 40 years. It was part of a mandate from Congress to streamline the application, making it simpler and faster to fill out.
Changes to the FAFSA formula also allowed more students to qualify for Pell grants — awards from the federal government that do not need to be repaid.
But the rollout was plagued by constant errors and delays, ultimately resulting in fewer students applying for financial aid.
About 430,000 fewer students — mainly from low and middle-income families — took advantage of the FAFSA last year because of the Department of Education’s failures, according to a September report by the Government Accountability Office.
The report also found that nearly three out of every four calls to the Department of Education’s call center went unanswered during the first five months of the rollout due to understaffing.
Responding to the new FAFSA rollout Thursday, House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, one of the Biden Education Department’s loudest critics, said she was glad the form was out, but “the Education Department now needs to ensure that the processing of applications is accurate, that missing capabilities are implemented quickly, and that future applicants never have to deal with this sort of botched rollout.”
How will the financial aid process be better this year?
This year’s form already went through four rounds of “beta testing,” with about 167,000 students submitting their applications.
“Simply put: the 2025-2026 FAFSA form is ready for prime time and is available both online and on paper,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters Thursday.
The Department of Education said it has boosted staffing at its call centers by nearly 80% compared to last year. It added more than 700 agents since January — with an additional 255 agents coming on board over the next few weeks as applications ramp up.
Starting Friday, it will also expand the opening hours for call centers for families seeking help with their FAFSA forms — from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET on weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. ET on Saturdays.
Officials said they expect to see a “surge of users today” after the announcement that the form is live, which could result in delayed wait times.
