Talk of the Town
It’s not often that we tell you about a power outage before it happens, but that’s the case today.
Martinsville Utilities notified us last week that they will be repairing a broken utility pole along Franklin Street this morning and intend to disconnect power in the area from 8:30 a.m. to approximately 12 p.m. today.
This outage will affect us, and we will be off the air while the repairs are being made. We will return to the airwaves as soon as power has been restored.
(NEW YORK) — The Artemis II mission launched on Wednesday, taking four astronauts on a historic, 10-day mission around the moon and giving them views of a lifetime along the way.
A day after lift-off, ABC News’ Gio Benitez spoke with astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen from their Orion spacecraft about the journey so far, and what they are anticipating for the days ahead.
“I don’t know what we all expected to see … but you could see the entire globe, from pole to pole,” Commander Wiseman said of the crew’s view of Earth from space Thursday.
“You could see Africa, Europe, and if you looked really close, you could see the northern lights. It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” he added.
This mission marks the first time humans have flown beyond low-Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission that landed on the moon in 1972.
The crew is going on a 685,000-mile journey around the moon, also known as a lunar fly-by.
The launch on Wednesday was seen around the world, as the crew successfully lifted off at 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Hansen, mission specialist and part of the Canadian Space Agency, said that even though they were all expecting it, when the rocket boosters actually lit up and they left the launch pad, “there’s just a moment of disbelief.”
“The fact that we launched — it just totally takes you by surprise, even though you’re expecting it, at least for me anyway, and just had a huge smile across my face,” he said.
Koch, a mission specialist who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days, addressed the toilet issue onboard the spacecraft, which was reported after launch.
‘”I’m proud to call myself the space plumber,” Koch said. “I like to say that it is probably the most important piece of equipment on board.”
Crew members said at the time that the Orion capsule’s toilet, dubbed the Universal Waste Management System, had a blinking fault light while they tested it, but it had been resolved since.
“So we were all breathing a sigh of relief when it turned out to be just fine,” Koch said.
Glover, the mission pilot who will make history as the first person of color to go to the moon, said from high Earth orbit, the divisions of Earth are far out of view.
“Trust us, you look amazing, you look beautiful,” he said of Earth. “You also look like one thing. Homo sapiens is all of us, no matter where you’re from or what you look like. We’re all one people.”
“We call amazing things that humans do ‘moonshots’ for a reason, because this brought us together and showed us what we can do when we not just put our differences aside, when we bring our differences together and use all the strengths to accomplish something great,” Glover said.
Before speaking with ABC News on Thursday, the Artemis II crew successfully completed a critical milestone in the mission, the translunar injection burn that boosted the Orion spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit onto a trajectory toward the moon.
During a press conference after the maneuver, Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator at NASA, said that the critical translunar injection burn was “flawless.”
“From this point forward, the laws of orbital mechanics are going to carry our crew to the moon, around the far side and back to Earth,” Glaze said.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(NEW YORK) — Another winter storm will be affecting tens of millions of Americans this weekend, adding more snow to the harsh weather that has already caused the deaths of over 100 people since last week, according to officials.
Snow began falling in parts of eastern Tennessee, the Carolinas, and southern Virginia on Friday. Parts of northeastern Tennessee have already gotten up to three inches of fresh snow.
Through Saturday, this storm will begin to rapidly intensify over the Atlantic Ocean and offshore of the Mid-Atlantic, with winds quickly increasing as snow continues to fall over the Southeast.
With strong gusts between 35 and 60 mph and heavy snow, blizzard conditions are possible for millions late Saturday afternoon into the evening from eastern Georgia to Maryland.
Both South Carolina and North Carolina are under the Winter Storm Warning for up to a foot of snow and strong winds that will lead to whiteout conditions and dangerous travel.
The snow forecast shows a widespread 6-12 inches across the Carolinas, into western Tennessee and southeastern Virginia. Snow will start tapering off early Sunday morning.
“Major” winter storm impacts are expected for much of the Carolinas into southeastern Virginia.
Dangerous travel conditions leading to major travel disruptions, blizzard conditions, gusts up to 70 mph, coastal flooding, and beach erosion will all be possible with the peak of the storm on Saturday.
As of Saturday morning, more than 1,500 flights have been cancelled.
The storm moves out to sea on Sunday, with models continuing to keep it well off the coast and not bringing any significant snowfall to the Northeast, which was hit with heavy snow last week.
While the snow may be out of the way by Sunday, the freezing temperatures will remain.
A wide swath of America from the Upper Midwest down to the Deep South and out to the east are waking up with dangerously cold temperatures, which will linger into early next week for most.
Cities like Washington, D.C., Detroit and Green Bay had wind chills at zero Saturday morning, while New York City, Nashville and Little Rock had wind chills down into the single digits.
Through the weekend, places like Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Syracuse, New York, are under a Cold Weather Advisory until Sunday for wind chills between -15 and -25.
The New York City area remains under a cold weather advisory this morning for wind chills as low as -10 possible just before sunrise.
The bitter, and in some cases extreme, cold extends all the way to the Gulf Coast this weekend.
In Florida, an Extreme Cold Warning is in place for Sunday morning, where wind chills could reach the upper-teens in West Palm Beach, and Orlando could reach as low as 12. Jacksonville could also see wind chills on Sunday morning down to 9 and Tallahassee down to 10.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Senator Bill Stanley has formed a caucus of leaders to address the risk that racetracks in Virginia will lose races.…