Police rescue 68-year-old woman from burning car after it flips over on highway
(CHESTER, NY) — A 68-year-old woman is in stable condition after being rescued from a vehicle fire that engulfed her car when it flipped over during a crash on a highway in New York, police said.
The incident occurred shortly after 4 a.m. on Sunday morning when units from the Chester Police Department in New York were dispatched along with other emergency service units to “a report of a motor vehicle on Kings Highway near Knapps View Park,” according to a statement from the Chester Police Department.
When authorities arrived on scene, they discovered that the driver was still trapped in the vehicle that had been consumed by flames, police said.
“Officer Nicholas Contino was the first police officer to arrive on scene,” authorities said in their statement. “He gave his fire extinguisher to a passing motorist and worked to locate the operator in the vehicle. He was able to break the sunroof glass and free her from the vehicle. With the assistance of two passing motorists and a paramedic from Empress EMS, she was removed from the vehicle and away from the fire.”
The woman who was driving the car has not been named by authorities, but officials did say that she was a 68-year-old resident of Warwick, New York, and that she suffered burns to about a third of her body.
The woman was immediately taken to Westchester Medical Center’s Burn Unit and currently remains in stable condition.
“Officer Contino’s effort greatly increased the motorist’s chances for survival and he is commended for a job well done,” police said.
Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune via TNS via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in federal funding to Cornell and $790 million to Northwestern, as the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at the schools, according to two White House officials.
“On Monday, several Trump administration agencies froze roughly $790M of federal funding and roughly $1.05B of federal funding from Northwestern and Cornell, respectively,” a senior administration official told ABC News. “The money was frozen in connection with several ongoing, credible, and concerning Title VI investigations.”
The funding pause mostly involves grants from and contracts with the Department of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, according to White House officials.
Northwestern said in a statement to ABC that it was informed by “members of the media” that the federal government plans to “freeze a significant portion of our federal funding. The University said it “has not received any official notification.”
“Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research,” the University said. “This type of research is now at jeopardy. The University has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress.”
Cornell wrote in a statement they have received “more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense related to research that is profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health.”
“We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions,” Cornell said.
“The affected grants include research into new materials for jet engines, propulsion systems, large-scale information networks, robotics, superconductors, and space and satellite communications, as well as cancer research,” the school continued.
The New York Times first reported on the funding freeze.
Legal experts are questioning the authority of the Trump administration to pause the federal funding.
“This is completely lawless, as far as I can tell, to the extent that we don’t even know what legal provision the government is relying upon,” Genevieve Lakier, professor of law at the University of Chicago, said.
If the funding halt is justified under the Civil Rights Act, as White House officials have told ABC News, Lakier said the law requires there to be a set of procedures followed and notice given.
“There has to be a hearing. You have to give members of Congress 30 days before you do it. You have to give the school 30 days. You have to allow the right to appeal. None of this is being followed,” Lakier said.
Michael Dorf, professor at Cornell Law School, echoed Lakier’s assessment.
“There’s a federal statute that explains if agencies and the government believe a funding recipient is not complying with its civil rights obligations, there’s a whole set of procedures they have to follow before you cut those off,” Dorf said. “The government has followed none of those procedures.”
The move comes as the administration doubles down on allegations of antisemitic conduct and harassment from elite universities.
The Department of Education and other agencies are reviewing Harvard University for allegedly fostering antisemitism on its campus. The administration stripped Columbia University of $400 million in grants earlier this month after a task force investigation says it found inaction by the school to protect Jewish students.
In response to the review, Harvard President Alan Garber released a statement saying, “We fully embrace the important goal of combatting antisemitism, one of the most insidious forms of bigotry.”
(WASHINGTON) — A second federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from schools that participate in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Hours after a New Hampshire judge issued a similar order on Thursday, a federal judge in Maryland appointed by Trump issued a broader ruling that prohibits the Department of Education from using federal funding to end DEI initiatives within public schools.
“This Court takes no view as to whether the policies at issue here are good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair,” wrote U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher of Maryland. “But this Court is constitutionally required to closely scrutinize whether the government went about creating and implementing them in the manner the law requires. The government did not.”
Judge Gallagher wrote that the group that brought the lawsuit — the American Federation of Teachers, American Sociological Association and a public school in Oregon — successfully proved they would be irreparably harmed and the Education Department letter at issue likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
“This Court ends where it began—this case is about procedure,” she wrote. “Plaintiffs have shown that the government likely did not follow the procedures it should have, and those procedural failures have tangibly and concretely harmed the Plaintiffs. This case, especially, underscores why following the proper procedures, even when it is burdensome, is so important.”
Earlier, a judge in New Hampshire said the Trump administration’s attempt to make federal funding to schools conditional on them eliminating any DEI policies erodes the “foundational principles” that separates the United States from totalitarian regimes.
In an 82-page order, U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty partially blocked the Department of Education from enforcing the memo issued earlier this year that directed any institution that receives federal funding to end discrimination on the basis of race or face funding cuts.
“Ours is a nation deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned,” Judge McCafferty wrote, adding the “right to speak freely and to promote diversity of ideas and programs is…one of the chief distinctions that sets us apart from totalitarian regimes.”
“In this case, the court reviews action by the executive branch that threatens to erode these foundational principles,” she wrote.
Judge McCafferty stopped short of issuing a nationwide injunction, instead limiting the relief to any entity that employs or contacts with the groups that filed a lawsuit challenging the DOE’s memo.
Education groups sued the Department of Education in February after the agency warned all educational institutions in a letter to end discrimination based on race or face federal funding consequences.
The lawsuit criticized what it said was an unlawful “Dear Colleague” letter which will “irreparably harm” schools, students, educators, and communities across the country.
“This vague and clearly unconstitutional memo is a grave attack on students, our profession and knowledge itself,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement at the time.
In justifying her preliminary injunction Thursday, Judge McCafferty called out the DOE for taking a position on DEI that flatly contradicts its own policies from a few years ago.
“Prior to the 2025 Letter, the Department had not indicated a belief that programs designed to promote diversity, equity, or inclusion constituted unlawful discrimination. Nor had it taken the position that schools necessarily behave unlawfully when they act with the goal of increasing racial diversity. In fact, the Department had taken the opposite position,” the judge wrote.
In addition to finding the policy is likely unconstitutional and illegal, Judge McCafferty also criticized the Department of Education for making funding conditional on DEI programming, though the judge said the memo “does not even define what a DEI program is,” pointing to “vague and expansive prohibitions” in the DOE’s letter from February.
The Department of Education has not yet commented on the rulings.
Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office/Getty Images
(HARRISBURG, Pa.) — The suspected arsonist who allegedly tried to kill Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro decided to firebomb his official residence because of “what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” according to a search warrant signed by Pennsylvania State Police.
Investigators obtained several warrants as part of the investigation into the early Sunday morning arson attack, including for suspect Cody Balmer’s storage unit, electronic devices and parents’ home, where he told a Dauphin County judge he had recently been living.
Balmer, 38, targeted Shapiro “based upon perceived injustices to the people of Palestine,” one of the warrants said, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Attorney General Pam Bondi strongly condemned the attack in remarks at the Department of Justice on Wednesday, but she declined to label the act “domestic terrorism” or commit to opening a separate federal case against the suspect.
“It is absolutely horrific what happened to him,” Bondi said. “We have been praying for Josh, for his family. Those photos, it was horrible. I firmly believe that they wanted to kill him. The defendant allegedly said he was going to use a hammer if he could have gotten to the governor. I’ve known the governor many, many years. It is horrible, and yes, we are working with state authorities to do — it’s now a pending investigation — anything we can to help convict the person that did this and keep them behind bars as long as possible.”
Bondi did not answer a direct question from a reporter about whether she would label the action “domestic terrorism,” as she has repeatedly described the wave of attacks carried out on Teslas and dealerships around the country in recent months.
The attack occurred hours after the Shapiro family hosted more than two dozen people for the first night of Passover.
The fire was reported at about 2 a.m. ET Sunday and the family was safely evacuated.
Investigators have not released a motive for the attack, but the search warrant represents the most direct indication of why Balmer allegedly hopped a fence at the governor’s mansion, broke windows and hurled Molotov cocktails police said he made from beer bottles and gasoline.
Balmer called 911 less than an hour after the attack, identified himself and told the call-taker that he will not take part in Shapiro’s plans “for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” the warrant said, according to the sources. Balmer added Shapiro needed to “stop having my friends killed.”
After turning himself in, Balmer allegedly told police he would have attacked Shapiro with a hammer if he happened upon the governor inside the residence, according to court documents.
Balmer faces eight criminal charges, including attempted murder, terrorism and aggravated arson. Prosecutors at this time have not invoked a hate crime law, which in Pennsylvania is known as ethnic intimidation.
The Pennsylvania State Police has hired an outside investigator to conduct a review of its security posture at the governor’s mansion. The review will include a “risk and vulnerability assessment of the Governor’s Residence and grounds,” police said.
