High avalanche danger in the Rockies as another tornado threat heads to the South
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A parade of storms is continuing to pound the West Coast, bringing high waves, strong winds, heavy rain, snow and the threat of avalanches.
In the Rocky Mountains, where another 2 to 4 feet of snow is forecast though the weekend, an avalanche watch has been issued from 5 p.m. Friday until 5 p.m. Monday.
More rain is headed to the West Coast on Friday night and Sunday morning. Local rivers will continue to rise and flooding is expected in Washington and Oregon.
High wind alerts have been issued for Northern California, Oregon, Wyoming and Montana, where wind gusts could reach 70 mph.
The West Coast will finally get a break from the severe weather next week.
Meanwhile, in the South, a strong storm brought eight reported tornadoes to Texas and Louisiana on Thursday.
On Friday, more damaging winds, hail and an isolated tornado are possible from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama, to Pensacola, Florida.
A new storm system is bringing another tornado threat this weekend.
On Saturday, an elevated tornado threat is forecast from Louisiana to Alabama. Cities in the bull’s-eye include Jackson, Mississippi; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Alexandria, Louisiana.
On Sunday, this storm system will move into the Southeast and could bring severe weather from Georgia to the Carolinas to southern Virginia. Damaging winds and a few tornadoes will be possible.
(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.”
(NEW YORK) — As bird flu continues to spread across the U.S., stores around the country are reporting a shortage of eggs amid soaring prices, high demand and supply limits.
More than 150 million poultry birds have been killed across all 50 states in an attempt to combat bird flu since 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The number of birds affected by the virus has been rising in recent months, with roughly 7 million affected in November, 18 million in December and 23 million in January, according to the latest figures from the USDA.
Over the last 30 days, 150 flocks were confirmed to test positive for bird flu, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Once a bird is infected, the only way to stop the virus from spreading further is to depopulate or cull the entire flock. It can take time for a flock to repopulate to lay eggs, affecting their price.
The Consumer Price Index, published Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed prices were 3% higher in January compared to a year ago. Prices for eggs increased 15.2% — the largest increase in egg prices since June 2015, according to the bureau.
As grocery stores and supermarkets limit the number of cartons of eggs that can be purchased, some people have resorted to stealing in order to get their hands on eggs.
Stores enforce purchase limits
Chains across the country have enforced limits on how many eggs customers can buy due to the high demand and shrinking supply.
“Due to ongoing issues with the supply of eggs, we are currently limiting egg purchases to one dozen per customer, per day, in all Trader Joe’s stores across the country,” a representative for Trader Joe’s confirmed to “Good Morning America” on Monday.
Other retailers, including Sprouts Farmers Market and Costco, have also implemented purchase limits on fresh eggs. Photos taken at Costco showed the warehouse giant limiting egg purchases to three per member.
This week, Lidl US announced it would also limit egg purchases to two per customer across all its stores.
“The following egg brands sold at Lidl US stores are currently limited to 2 per customer to ensure fair distribution: Green Valley, Simpson’s Eggs, and Puglisi’s Farm,” a Lidl US spokesperson said. “Specialty egg brands, including cage free, free range and organic, do not have limitations at this time at Lidl US.”
Despite concerns about the safety of eggs available in stores, experts say it’s highly unlikely to contract bird flu from commercially sold eggs.
Some turn to egg heists
Earlier this month, 100,000 organic eggs worth an estimated $40,000 were stolen from a facility in Green Castle, Pennsylvania.
Tom Flocco, CEO of Pete and Gerry’s Eggs, told “Good Morning America” in an exclusive interview last week that the company was going to boost security.
“I’ve worked in other industries before where things get stolen from factories,” Flocco said. “It happens. It’s terrible. I’m not happy about it, but it does happen. It could happen once; it could happen again. We are putting additional measures in place.”
Additionally, at Luna Park Café in Seattle, hundreds of dollars worth of eggs and other breakfast foods were stolen, according to the Seattle Police Department.
In the early morning hours on Feb. 5, two male suspects were caught on surveillance video entering a refrigerated shed at the restaurant, police said. The men stole 540 eggs worth $387, as well as bacon, ground beef, blueberries and liquid egg products, the SPD said.
A café employee said they saw one of the suspects return to the property, but he got back in the van and fled when he realized he’d been spotted, police said.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud, Kelly McCarthy, Joshua Richardson and Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Disgraced former Congressman George Santos asked a judge on Friday to delay his sentencing in his federal fraud case.
Santos is currently scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 7 in Central Islip, New York, after pleading guilty to federal fraud, campaign finance and embezzlement charges.
His attorneys asked the judge to postpone the sentencing by six months, until August, to give Santos more time to make money so he can meet the nearly $600,000 he owes in restitution and forfeiture, according to a new court filing.
“Mr. Santos now has a viable path to making meaningful progress on satisfying his obligations,” his lawyers stated in a motion filed on Friday, citing the launch of a new podcast, “Pants on Fire with George Santos.”
Federal prosecutors did not immediately respond, though the defense noted that the government opposes a delay.
The former New York representative pleaded guilty in August to claiming relatives had made contributions to his campaign when, in fact, they had not. Santos conceded he was trying to meet the fundraising threshold to qualify for financial help from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He told reporters at the time that the guilty plea was the “right thing to do.”
“This plea is not just an admission of guilt,” Santos said. “It’s an acknowledgment that I need to be held accountable like any other American that breaks the law.”
Santos also stipulated that he committed other fraud, including charging donor credit cards without authorization and convincing donors to give money by falsely stating the money would be used for TV ads. He also stipulated he stole public money by applying for and receiving unemployment benefits during the pandemic to which he was not entitled.
Santos conceded in a statement to the court his actions “betrayed” his constituents and others.
He faces a sentence of 75-87 months, including a mandatory minimum two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.
He also must pay restitution of nearly $374,000 and forfeiture of more than $200,000.
Santos’ lawyers flagged in the final moments of his plea hearing on Aug. 19 that the former congressman may not be able to pay over $200,000 in restitution.
He is required to pay the restitution 30 days before his sentencing on Feb. 7 and could face additional sanctions if he fails to pay in time.
Santos represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of Queens and Nassau counties, beginning in January 2023, before being expelled from Congress on Dec. 1, 2023.
