Rare Gulf Coast winter storm may hit next week: Latest forecast
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A developing winter storm may bring rare snow and ice to cities along the Gulf Coast, from Texas to Florida.
The storm is set to hit the region on Tuesday.
It is too early to say how much snow or ice will fall, but the rare event could pose a major problem on roads and for utility companies.
The last time New Orleans saw measurable snow was 2009, and the last time the city saw more than 1 inch of snow was 1963.
Tallahassee, Florida, last experienced measurable snow in 2018. The city last had more than 1 inch in 1989.
The storm will also bring unusually cold temperatures to the Gulf. The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — will plunge Tuesday to about 21 degrees in Houston, 26 degrees in New Orleans and 28 in Panama City, Florida.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge has blocked the removal of a Palestinian activist from the United States while weighing a petition challenging his arrest, court documents show.
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Columbia University over the weekend, despite having a green card, his attorney told ABC News, sparking an outcry from civil rights groups.
ICE agents arrested Khalil — a leader in the Manhattan university’s encampment movement — on Saturday night, claiming that his student visa had been revoked, his attorney, Amy Greer, said in a statement to ABC News.
However, Khalil is in the United States on a green card and not on a student visa, Greer said Sunday. Despite informing agents about his legal status, ICE detained him, she said.
President Donald Trump claimed Khalil was a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and said this is the “first arrest of many to come” in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
“We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again,” he added.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Khalil is a former Columbia University graduate student and was arrested by ICE “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”
“Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” McLaughlin said in a statement Sunday night. “ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also shared an article about Khalil on Sunday night and posted on X, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
Baher Azmy, one of the lawyers representing Khalil, called his client’s alleged alignment with Hamas “false and preposterous.”
“So setting aside the false and preposterous premise that advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights and to plead with public officials to stop an ongoing genocide constitutes alignment with Hamas, his speech is absolutely protected by the Constitution, and it should be chilling to everyone that the United States government could punish or try to deport someone because they disapprove of the speech they’re engaged in,” Azmy told ABC News on Monday.
Greer said she is challenging Khalil’s arrest, which occurred at his university residence.
“Overnight we filed a habeas corpus petition on Mahmoud’s behalf challenging the validity of his arrest and detention,” she said Sunday.
At one point during a phone call with agents, they hung up on Greer, a representative of her law firm told ABC News.
Greer said they initially did not know Khalil’s whereabouts following his arrest. His wife, who is eight months pregnant and a U.S. citizen, was unable to find him at an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was purportedly transferred, Greer said — adding that he might have been transferred to Louisiana.
An attorney for Khalil confirmed to ABC News on Monday that he’s currently being held at a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana.
“ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” the lawyer said. “The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, called for Khalil’s release.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s lawless decision to arrest him solely because of his peaceful anti-genocide activism represents a blatant attack on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, immigration laws, and the very humanity of Palestinians,” the group said in a statement on Monday. “We and other civil rights groups are in communication with Mahmoud’s legal counsel. This fight is just starting.”
Several hundred protesters massed Monday in lower Manhattan to demand his release, carrying signs that said “No political prisoners in the United States” and “Release Mahmoud Khalil.”
“He was arrested for speaking out against genocide,” said Marian Osman, one of the organizers. “We have a right to free speech. Political speech is protected speech in this country.”
After Trump posted that Khalil would not be the last pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested, Osman pledged protesters would not be intimidated.
“We are just getting started,” she said. “I don’t think protesters should be scared. I think protesters should be upset and angry.”
The arrest occurred just days after Trump took to social media threatening to defund universities that allowed “illegal protests” and claiming “agitators” will be sent back to their home countries.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on [sic] the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump posted on Truth Social on March 4.
Columbia released the following statement on Sunday: “There have been reports of ICE around campus. Columbia has and will continue to follow the law. Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings.”
“Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community,” the statement continued.
(WASHINGTON) — A Texas man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a flight attendant and a passenger while on board an American Airlines flight earlier this month, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
At approximately 9:00 p.m. on March 5, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department contacted the FBI regarding a disturbance on American Airlines Flight 5574 traveling from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C. — the same flight path as the plane that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter on Jan. 29, killing 67 people.
The suspect, Asterius Mutayoba Rulamka, had allegedly left his assigned seat during the flight and walked to the rear of the plane, where he “engaged with a flight attendant,” according to an FBI affidavit obtained by ABC News.
Rulamka then sat down in the back of the plane and began to yell profanities at the flight attendant, with passengers taking videos of the incident on their cellphones, according to the affidavit.
Upon noticing one passenger filming, Rulamka allegedly started to attack him, grabbing his arms and verbally berating him, the affidavit said. The suspect also removed the passenger’s hat and glasses and struck him “in the face near his left eye, causing bruising and a bloodshot eye,” the FBI said.
The defendant allegedly attempted to swing at the flight attendant he previously assaulted, but the attendant was able to move out of the way before being struck, sustaining a “small laceration to his finger and a broken fingernail” in the process, the affidavit said.
Rulamka then began running up and down the aisles of the cabin, but three passengers and the flight attendants were able to secure the suspect for landing in a seat near his original seat, the affidavit said.
When the flight was arriving at Ronald Reagan National Airport, Rulamka allegedly made several statements, including that he “had come to D.C. to speak to President Trump,” the affidavit said.
Rulamka was asked why he wanted to meet with Trump, and he replied that he was “mad,” the affidavit said.
The FBI said Rulamka had a Texas driver’s license, but a criminal history check revealed that the Department of Homeland Security “encountered the defendant in 2014 as a non-immigrant overstay, and immigration proceedings are pending,” the affidavit said.
“On March 5, law enforcement responded to American Eagle Flight 5574 after its arrival in Washington, D.C. (DCA) due to a disruptive customer. We do not tolerate violence, and thank our team members for their professionalism,” American Airlines said in a statement to ABC News.
Rulamka has been charged with “assault by beating, striking and wounding, in violation of the Title 18 United States Code, Section 113(a)(4),” according to the affidavit. A hearing for Rulamka has been scheduled for March 13.
Attorney information was not immediately listed for Rulamka.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Friday will consider issuing a temporary restraining order to block the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, the embattled agency that handles foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs.
Two foreign service unions are suing the federal government as the Trump administration attempts to reduce USAID’s workforce from 14,000 to only 300 employees.
The American Foreign Service Organization and the American Federation of Government Employees filed the lawsuit in D.C. federal court Thursday, alleging that President Donald Trump engaged in a series of “unconstitutional and illegal actions” to systematically destroy USAID.
“These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests,” the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs said Trump has unilaterally attempted to reduce the agency without congressional authorization, arguing that Congress is the only entity with the authority to dismantle USAID.
The lawsuit reads like a timeline of the last two weeks, laying out each step that formed the groundwork to break USAID, beginning with Trump’s first day in office. Shortly after Trump froze foreign aid via an executive order on his first day, he began to target USAID by ordering his State Department to begin issuing stop work orders, the lawsuit said.
“USAID grantees and contractors reeled as they were — without any notice or process — constrained from carrying out their work alleviating poverty, disease, and humanitarian crises,” the lawsuit said.
Next came the layoffs, the lawsuit alleges, with thousands of contractors and employees of USAID losing their jobs, leading medical clinics, soup kitchens, and refugee assistance programs across the world to be brought “to an immediate halt.”
“The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk — who boasted about “feeding USAID into the woodchipper” — made the final move to gut the agency, locking thousands of employees out of their computers and accessing classified material improperly.
While each step to dismantle the organization differed, the lawsuit alleged that they were unified by one thing: “Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization.”
The plaintiffs have asked the court to declare Trump’s actions unlawful and issue an order requiring the Trump administration to “cease actions to shut down USAID’s operations in a manner not authorized by Congress.”
