Police dog finds 2 missing 11-year-old kids deep in national forest
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
(BROWN COUNTY, Ind.) — A K-9 unit with the Brown County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana located two missing 11-year-old kids who became separated from their mother and were lost in the woods, police said.
First responders were dispatched to the area of Sundance Lake in Hoosier National Forest at approximately 5:48 p.m. on Sunday afternoon after they received a report that two 11-year-old children “became separated from their mother and were lost in the thick woods,” according to a statement from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office.
“Our department, along with the Department of Natural Resources – Law Enforcement, Nashville Police Department, Harrison Township Fire Department, and Southern Brown Volunteer Fire Department all began searching the area,” police said.
The initial search turned up nothing but when Deputy Cody Loncaric arrived in the scene with his K-9 partner named Knox, the dog immediately began his first track in a field close to where the juveniles went missing, officials said.
“Knox began his first track in the field which was approximately 550 yards in length,” authorities said. “K-9 Knox pointed first responders in the right direction and helped to successfully locate the two missing juveniles.”
Police did not say who long the two children had been missing for or how long but took the opportunity to credit the search team who were able to find the kids deep within the thick forest.
“We are beyond thankful for the great teamwork put together by all involved,” officials said.
Guns retrieved from a teenager’s home in Pierce County, Washington. Pierce County Sheriff’s Office
(PIERCE COUNTY, Wash.) – A 13-year-old boy who may have “idolized previous mass shooters” has been arrested after police found a large collection of guns and “mass shooting scenario” writings at his Washington state home, authorities said.
Police were notified on Friday afternoon about the boy, who allegedly had “school shooter ideations,” “was making threats to kill” and said he had access to guns, according to the sheriff’s office in Pierce County, which encompasses Tacoma.
Police searched the boy’s home early Saturday morning. The sheriff’s office said authorities found a “large quantity” of secured and unsecured guns; “loaded magazines with school shooter writings on them;” and clothes and writings that reinforce a “typical mass shooting scenario.”
The teenager allegedly had social media posts dating back to June with photos of him holding guns as well as messaging that appeared to show a “fascination of recent school shootings/mass casualty attacks,” according to court documents. Police recovered posts that appeared to reference the 1999 Columbine High School mass shooting and the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, elementary school mass shooting, according to court documents.
Some AR-style magazines found at the boy’s home “had writing on them referencing mass shootings, including Columbine,” the court documents said.
Materials for fireworks and explosives were also recovered at the house, documents said.
The teenager has been charged with attempted threat to bomb/injure a school, unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of fireworks, according to court documents. He is due in court on Monday.
The boy is not currently enrolled in any school district, authorities said, noting that he last attended the Franklin Pierce School District in 2021.
A spokesperson for the Franklin Pierce School District told ABC News, “We were notified by local law enforcement personnel that a young person in our community was arrested for allegedly planning a school shooting. … We continue to work with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office to ensure that this individual is not a threat to our schools or our community as a whole.”
(NEW YORK) — Over 20 “ill-prepared” hikers were rescued from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington after they were trapped in “full winter conditions” without the proper gear, with some developing hypothermia, according to the Mount Washington Cog Railway.
The hikers, who were rescued on Saturday by railway officials, had reached the mountain’s 6,288-foot summit, but “most had no idea that summit services would be unavailable and that the state park was closed for the season,” Andy Vilaine, the assistant general manager for the Mount Washington Cog Railway, said in a statement on Saturday.
The train was heading to the summit as normal when crew members discovered “several distressed hikers,” Vilaine said in a statement to ABC News.
The hikers told the train officials they “didn’t think they would be able to hike back down,” with Vilaine agreeing after “assessing some of their conditions and outward appearance,” he said.
Many of the hikers were showing the “beginning signs of hypothermia” due to their “poor choice of clothing, including non-waterproof layers and sneakers,” Vilaine told ABC News.
Some of the hikers even admitted it was “their first hike ever,” Vilaine said.
Near the summit, temperatures on Saturday reached roughly between 15 to 18 degrees, with a wind chill anywhere between minus 5 and zero degrees, Vilaine said.
Train crew members created space “anywhere we could” for the hikers, with some even placed in locomotive cabs “with the heat on full-blast so they could start to reverse the effects of hypothermia,” Vilaine said.
“Had we not been able to assist the hikers with the one-way ride, there is little doubt in my mind that several more complex rescue efforts may have needed to be undertaken,” Vilaine told ABC News.
After the hikers were rescued, New Hampshire State Parks released a statement on Sunday urging those hiking in the winter conditions to be responsible as “multiple people have arrived at the summit the last few days very unprepared for winter and required assistance.”
Another hiker was rescued from Mount Washington on Sunday after he was “caught in a windblown snow with a dying light and cellphone near the summit,” according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.
The 20-year-old hiker from Rhode Island was “on the upper reaches of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail,” which is approximately 0.3 miles below the mountain’s summit, when he alerted rescuers that his headlamp and cellphone were “rapidly dying,” the fish and game department said in a press release on Monday.
The hiker was “found to have done some research on his hike, but was absolutely unprepared for the conditions that he encountered,” the department said. The 20-year-old was found uninjured and “thanked the rescuers multiple times in the aftermath of this event,” the department said.
“This situation could have had a very bad outcome, and everyone involved recognized that fact,” the department said.
Officials emphasized that hikers must bring “everything needed to hike in winter conditions,” or to simply “just hike another day.”
“It’s literally a life or death situation if they go up there unprepared,” Lt. Mark Ober with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department told Manchester, New Hampshire, ABC affiliate WMUR.
Cris Hazzard, a professional hiking guide and author, known as “The Hiking Guy,” previously told ABC News that several minutes of “homework” before embarking on an outdoor excursion — including checking the website of the trail or park or downloading an app like AllTrails — can help hikers avoid challenging conditions or become aware of specific closures.
(NEW YORK) — Stacy Cox used one word repeatedly as she described how she felt after learning her ACA premium could jump over 300% without the enhanced tax credits: “devastating.”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever cried opening a letter from an insurance or before, but it happened this time,” she told ABC News.
Cox’s premium this year has been $495.32 for coverage for her and her husband. Without the credit in 2026, she was informed that it’s increasing to $2,168.68.
“It’s devastating because we can’t afford that,” she said. “Just that bill right there, that’s more than our mortgage, our insurance, most of our food. That’s what we’re paying per month to live. We can’t afford to double what it costs for us to live just to have health insurance.”
“This will devastate us if we tried to pay it,” she added.
Millions across the country are discovering just how much their plans will cost as open enrollment for Affordable Care Act insurance plans began on Nov. 1. Enrollment lasts through Jan. 15, 2026.
A recent analysis from KFF found that if the enhanced premium tax credits expire, as they are currently set to do on Dec. 31, ACA enrollees will see their monthly premiums more than double – rising by roughly 114% on average. An estimated 22 million out of 24 million ACA marketplace enrollees are currently receiving a tax credit to lower their monthly premiums. Even if those credits are extended, KFF found that the amount insurers charge for ACA premiums will rise by an average 26% in 2026.
The current government shutdown has hinged on Democrats and Republicans’ positions on ACA subsidies, or premium tax credits, which help lower or eliminate the out-of-pocket cost of monthly premiums for those who purchase insurance through the health insurance marketplace.
The subsidies are currently set to expire at the end of 2025. Democrats have been demanding Republicans pass extensions of the subsidies before the government is reopened, while the GOP says it won’t negotiate until a clean funding bill passes and the government reopens.
For Cox and her husband, who live in Kanab, Utah, even if the tax credit were to be extended, they’d still see the premium increase to $753.68. It would be a hit to their budget, but one they would take to keep insurance.
“It’s already going to be hard for us to have a 52% increase on our premium, and that’s if the credits are extended,” she said. “But we will do it so that we can have health coverage.”
Cox, 48, is at high risk for breast cancer, has a mammogram every year and a fast breast MRI yearly as well.
Cox is a professional photographer and she and her husband, 55, have been enrolled in “Obamacare” since 2022. Having access to health care through the ACA is what gave her the motivation to quit her previous job and pursue her passion of photography, she said.
For now, she’s holding on to hope that the tax credits are extended and will reenroll in her plan so she doesn’t miss open enrollment. But she is ready to cancel it before the start of the new year if they aren’t.
ACA enrollee left feeling ‘helpless’ after seeing premium quadruple Beth Dryer is realizing she is in a similar position. If the tax credit isn’t extended, she says she will have no other option than to cancel it altogether.
Dryer, from Norfolk, Virginia, is the executive director of 757 Creative ReUse Center, a nonprofit art supply store, and in 2015 she was paying just shy of $80 for her premium.
She hadn’t looked up her 2026 options until speaking to ABC News on Thursday, and the spike was shocking.
“This says I now have an advanced premium tax credit of $0 so it looks like I have no tax credit for this so far for next year,” she said, reading from the enrollment site. “OK, so it looks like the same plan that I have this year would now be $425.03 a month next year, which is completely out of my budget.”
“I thought maybe it would double, but this is more than quadrupled in cost for me,” she continued. “So it’s just straight out — there’s no way I would be able to afford this next year.”
Dryer, a Democrat, said she realizes lawmakers are “stuck between a rock and a hard place,” but her message to them is to “get your stuff together and look at what you’re doing to the people of this country.”
“The Republicans aren’t going to budge on the tax credits, and they’re happy to watch people die. I mean, that’s essentially what it is,” she said. “You cut these tax credits, people are dying. People are already dying because they don’t have quality health care. People are already dying because they have food insecurity.”
Covering costs on their own Cox said she and her husband will have to start their own savings account for medical costs if they cancel.
“We will just create our own health savings, which is we were able to cover $500 per month for our health premium and so we will take $500 and we will put it into savings every month, so that if something does occur, when we do need to go to the doctor, that there’s at least something, some sort of cushion, as we try to cover this on our own,” she said.
Cox said although the health system may not be great, “it’s actually a functioning system” that allows her family to at least have a health plan.
With these tax credits being a sticking point in this shutdown, Cox wants Congress to “extend the credits while you work on reform.”
“This system can absolutely be improved … but don’t make us suffer while you figure it out. That’s what I would say. Don’t make me live without health insurance, while you guys figure out a better plan,” she said. “We have a plan that’s not the greatest plan, but it is a functioning plan. Let us rely on this functioning plan until there is something better. Don’t take my house from me, just because you say you’re building me a new one.”
And she’d also tell lawmakers: “You have health care. Why not extend that to me?”
