More rain on the way after flash flooding slams Pacific Northwest
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A series of storm systems fueled by an atmospheric river brought flash flooding to the Pacific Northwest this weekend — and more rain is on the way.
The new system will bring more heavy rain, snow, gusty winds and the threat of avalanches to the Northwest and northern Rockies on Monday and Tuesday.
Damaging winds reaching 60 to 80 mph are possible from the Washington and Oregon coast all the way inland to Montana.
The Spokane area in eastern Washington was inundated with 3 to 6 inches of rain this weekend, washing out roads. Now, the additional heavy rain could cause flooding in western Washington and Oregon on Monday.
In the northern Rockies, a flood watch has been issued for Montana and Idaho due to the snow melt and rain.
In the highest elevations of the northern Rockies, an avalanche warning has been issued after the rain and snow caused the snowpack to become unstable.
These storms are also bringing huge waves up to 34 feet to the West Coast.
(NEW YORK) — A Manhattan jury found Daniel Penny not guilty in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, following nearly a week of deliberations.
Penny, a former Marine and architecture student, was initially charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide. Prosecutors alleged that Penny killed Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had previously been a Michael Jackson impersonator, when he placed him in a six-minute-long chokehold on a subway car in May 2023, holding Neely for at least 51 seconds after his body went limp. The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.
The defense told jurors that Penny “acted to save” subway passengers from a “violent and desperate” Neely, who was acting erratically, and that Penny continued to hold on because he feared Neely would break free, though he didn’t intend to kill Neely. The defense argued Neely died from a genetic condition and the synthetic marijuana found in his system.
The jury deliberated for more than 24 hours across five days before acquitting Penny of criminally negligent homicide on Monday. They were previously deadlocked on the more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter, which Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed on Friday at the request of prosecutors.
Penny pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The jury submitted several questions to the court during the course of their deliberations, giving some insight into their thinking.
Day 1
A little more than an hour after beginning deliberations, the jury on Tuesday asked for a readback of a portion of the judge’s instructions on the law. The jury was interested in the part about justified use of force.
Day 2
The jury asked to see key videos shown during the trial — police body camera footage, Penny’s interrogation video and a bystander’s video on Wednesday.
Later that day, the jury asked for a readback of testimony. The jury wanted to hear part of the cross-examination of the city medical examiner who concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely. Dr. Cynthia Harris, who was the final witness for the prosecution during the trial, determined that Neely died from compression to the neck.
During an intense cross-examination, Harris had pushed back against the defense suggestion that the public sentiment surrounding the trial influenced her conclusion that “there are no alternative reasonable explanations” for Neely’s death other than Penny’s chokehold.
“No toxicological result imaginable was going to change my opinion,” she testified.
Day 3
The jury heard more testimony read back from the cross-examination of Harris.
The jury subsequently requested to see two bystander videos capturing the moments when Penny placed Neely in a chokehold. The jury had already requested one of the two bystander videos the previous day.
Wiley allowed the jury to access a laptop with the videos so they could watch the requested videos as many times as they’d like.
Later that day, the jury requested the definitions of criminal negligence and recklessness.
“We the jury request that Judge Wiley read the definition of recklessness and negligence. Please read it more than once,” the note read. “Could the jury have the definitions in writing?”
The jury was considering two counts – second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum 15-year sentence, and criminally negligent homicide, which has a four-year maximum. To convict Penny of manslaughter, the jury must be convinced Penny acted recklessly and grossly deviated from how a reasonable person would behave knowing the risk his conduct posed.
Day 4
The jury told the judge on Friday they were “unable to come to a unanimous vote” on whether Penny committed manslaughter.
“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.
The verdict form asked the jury to decide the first count — second-degree manslaughter — before potentially moving to the second count of criminally negligent homicide. Only if they found Penny not guilty on the first count could they consider the second count.
About 20 minutes after the judge encouraged them to continue deliberating despite their deadlock, the jury sent back another note requesting more information about the term “reasonable person” in their instructions.
“Ultimately what a reasonable person is up to you to decide,” Wiley told the jury in response to their note, referring them to a two-part test in jury instruction.
“Would a reasonable person have had the same honestly held belief as the defendant given the circumstances and what the defendant knew at that time?” Wiley asked, referring to the second part of the test.
Several hours later, Wiley dismissed the top charge of second-degree manslaughter at the request of prosecutors.
The judge encouraged the jury to continue deliberating on Monday the lesser charge of whether Penny committed criminally negligent homicide.
Day 5
The jury announced Monday morning they had reached a unanimous decision on count two — finding Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
The courtroom broke out in a mix of cheers, clapping, and jeers as soon as the verdict was read.
Neely’s father cursed in anger shortly after the verdict and was forcibly removed from the courtroom by a court officer. Others in the gallery shouted, and one woman broke down in tears.
Penny, walking out of the courtroom, flashed a brief smile before returning to his stone-faced demeanor. His lawyers embraced one another while seated at the counsel table.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case, thanked the jury and vowed to respect their verdict.
“The jury has now spoken. At the Manhattan D.A.’s Office we deeply respect the jury process and we respect their verdict,” he said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump slammed the judge in his criminal hush money case Tuesday, a day after the judge refused to dismiss Trump’s conviction on the grounds of presidential immunity.
New York Judge Juan Merchan on Monday rejected Trump’s request to vacate the verdict in the case based on the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision.
Trump had sought to dismiss his criminal indictment and vacate the jury verdict on the grounds that prosecutors, during the trial earlier this year, introduced evidence relating to Trump’s official acts as president that was inadmissible based on the Supreme Court’s subsequent ruling that Trump is entitled to presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.
“Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court, and its Historic Decision on Immunity,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Tuesday, calling Merchan’s ruling, without evidence, “completely illegal.”
Merchan, in his ruling, determined that the evidence in the case related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and “poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch.”
The judge “wrote an opinion that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution, and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it,” Trump wrote in his post.
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Emergency units respond to airplane wreckage in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. An American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas collided with a helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Fourteen figure skaters — including some young athletes called the “rising stars” of the sport — are among the victims of the first major commercial plane crash in the United States since 2009, officials said.
The Skating Club of Boston was devastated by the crash, according to Doug Zeghibe, the club’s CEO and executive director, who said six of the victims were from the Boston club, including two coaches, two teenage athletes and two moms of athletes.
“Our sport and this club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,” Zeghibe said. “Skating is a tight-knit community where parents and kids come together six or seven days a week to train and work together. Everyone is like family. We are devastated and completely at a loss for words.”
Zeghibe identified the skaters from the Skating Club of Boston as Jinna Ha and Spencer Lane. Ha’s mother, Jin Han, and Lane’s mother, Christine Lane, were also on board.
He identified the two coaches as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. The two were 1994 World Pair Champions who joined the club in 2017, Zeghibe said.
“Six is a horrific number for us but we’re fortunate and grateful it wasn’t more than six,” Zeghibe said. “This will have long reaching impacts for our skating community.”
The figure skaters and coaches were returning from a training camp held in conjunction with the recent U.S. national championships in Wichita, Kansas. They were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday evening, officials said. No survivors were expected in the crash, officials said Thursday. There were 64 people aboard the plane and three in the helicopter, according to officials.
Natalya Gudin, the wife of Alexandr Kirsanov, a coach of two youth ice skaters on board the flight, said she has “lost everything” in the crash. Gudin, also a skating coach, decided to stay home in Delaware while Kirsanov flew to Kansas for the development camp. She says she spoke with her husband as he boarded the flight on Wednesday.
“I lost my husband, I lost my students, I lost my friends,” Gudin told ABC News. “I need my husband back. I need his body back.”
The University of Delaware said Sasha Kirsanov, a former figure skating club coach, was also on the airplane, along with two young skaters who were also members of the club.
“Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all of the victims of this horrible tragedy,” said President of the University of Delaware Dennis Assanis.
The U.S. Figure Skating community has been struck by tragedy in a plane crash before. An entire U.S. figure skating team died in a plane crash on Feb. 15, 1961. The plane, Sabena Flight 548, was carrying the team to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Along with the team, 16 family members, coaches and friends of the skaters died in the crash.
“Like today, 1961 was a tragic moment, it was the day the music stopped, very much like this,” said longtime member of the Skating Club of Boston Paul George during a Thursday press conference. “It was a very vivid reminder of 1961. My wife tapped me on the shoulder at 6:30 (a.m.) and told me, much as my father had done 64 years ago at about the same time of day.”
Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano told ABC News he knew the two Russian skating coaches, Naumov and Shishkova, and had handed the fourth-place award to the pair’s son at the U.S. championships in Wichita last weekend.
“We are a really close-knit community. The skaters — we are all connected. So when something happens to one of us, it reverberates through everyone.”
The U.S. figure skating world has emerged from the shadows of tragedy before, he said.
“From the 1961 plane crash, we did rise from that,” Boitano said, adding “It took years to build.”
During a press conference Thursday, Olympic medalist and renowned figure skater Nancy Kerrigan fought back tears as she explained the impact of the crash on the skating community, urging others to “tell people around you that you love them, because you just never know.”
“Skating teaches you the main lesson in life: You get back up,” Kerrigan said. “Even when it’s hard, even when you’re crying, even when you’re hurt. And that’s what we all have to do now — together.”
Oklahoma City figure skating coach Jackie Brenner was in Wichita with the skaters, coaches and officials who later boarded the flight.
“I was there on Sunday at a coaching workshop, which was the first day of U.S. figure skating development camp as they were coming into their two days of training,” Brenner said. The camp draws the sport’s “rising stars,” she said.
“That’s our next generation for U.S. figure skating,” she told ABC News, adding, “You can just imagine how devastated U.S. figure skating community is.”
CEO of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Sarah Hirshland said the young skaters who were lost “represented the bright future of Team USA, embodying the very essence of what it means to represent our country — perseverance, resilience and hope.”
“They were remarkable young people and talents, passionately pursuing their dreams, and they will forever hold a cherished place in the Team USA family,” Hirshland said in a statement. “We extend our sincerest condolences during this unimaginable time.”
The last commercial plane crash in the U.S. happened on Feb. 12, 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed during landing near Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 people onboard.
