Sec. of State Marco Rubio en route to Germany after plane suffers mechanical issue
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(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s plane experienced a mechanical issue while en route to Munich, Germany, on Thursday, according to a State Department spokesperson.
The plane turned around returned to Joint Base Andrews before Rubio continued his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft, the spokesperson added.
Rubio is now safely en route to Munich on a smaller aircraft, according to the State Department.
Rubio is headed to Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference and to participate in the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, according to the State Department.
He will then travel to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to meet with senior officials, according to the agency.
“Secretary Rubio’s engagements with senior officials will promote U.S. interests in advancing regional cooperation, stability, and peace,” the State Department said of the trip, adding that the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal will be a priority.
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(LOS ANGELES) — Late at night on Jan. 6, Los Angeles Emergency Management Department General Manager Carol Parks sent a text message wishing Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley a happy new year.
“It’s my first opportunity to send this Public Safety leadership text,” Parks wrote. “Wishing it could have been on a blue sky day, but duty now calls.”
The following day, Los Angeles would witness the start of what would become the worst wildfire in city history, destroying large swaths of the Pacific Palisades area.
“Not good,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Tony Marrone texted at 11:18 a.m.
“No,” Crowley responded.
Almost immediately after the Palisades fire began spreading through the Westside of Los Angeles in January, questions were raised about how city leaders prepared for the disaster.
Early on, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass faced scrutiny over her decision to continue with a diplomatic trip to Ghana before the fires broke out, while Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley told local TV station KTTV that previous municipal budget cuts “did impact our ability to provide [firefighting] service.”
“It was a mistake to travel, but I will tell you that we need to evaluate everything,” Bass later told KABC-TV. “Because, honest and truly, if I had all of the information that I needed to have, the last thing I would have done was to be out of town.”
ABC News previously reported that although the LAFD’s budget saw a $17.5 million budget cut in May 2024, the measure occurred while fire employee union contract negotiations were underway. Once the contract was approved, the department’s budget increased from $819.6 million to $895.6 million. The exact impact of the 2024 budget matters remains unclear.
Last month, Bass announced she was removing Crowley as fire chief, criticizing decisions she said the department made under Crowley’s leadership, including not keeping some 1,000 firefighters on extra duty as their shift ended in the hours before the Palisades fire broke out.
Crowley subsequently issued a statement defending her lengthy career with the LAFD, noting in part that “as the Fire Chief, I based my actions and decisions on taking care of our firefighters so that they could take care of our communities.”
Now, hundreds of files linked to the Palisades fire response released by the EMD and LAFD to KABC-TV and ABC News this week through public records requests are providing new insight about what local officials were discussing before, during and after the blaze tore through neighborhoods.
The records, which include text messages from Crowley’s phone and city government reports, show how officials first started to realize how bad things were getting and that the windswept blazes had the upper hand.
‘Potentially life-threatening and destructive impacts’
During the text exchange on Jan. 6, Parks, the Emergency Management Department director, informed Crowley that Los Angeles Emergency Operations Center would be “activated at Level 3 (lowest level with EMD staff)” the next day.
“Should conditions necessitate us elevating the EOC status, the three of us will need to remain in close contact,” Parks wrote, an apparent reference to Crowley and Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell.
Crowley responded in part, “I’ll be available to discuss any necessary actions with the both of you if the need arises.”
An EMD city leadership briefing dated Jan. 6 commented on the next day’s weather forecast for Los Angeles: “This windstorm event could lead to potentially life-threatening and destructive impacts similar in magnitude to the 2011 Pasadena windstorm.”
“Any fires that develop during this period may experience rapid growth and extreme behavior,” the briefing added, noting that the LAFD was expected to pre-deploy resources on Jan. 7 and that community emergency response teams would be activated.
‘Anything else you can send us, we will take it’
The next morning, in the hours after sunrise, text messages show that Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s office had reached out to the LAFD “about the weather event.”
Harris-Dawson had been serving as acting mayor since Bass traveled to Ghana.
“I briefed him on our deployment in our preparation efforts. Also our needs for additional resources,” LAFD Deputy Chief Jason Hing told Crowley in a text message.
In another text, sent to Battalion Chief Patrick Leonard at 9:04 a.m., Crowley asks him to direct another staff member to “reach out to the appropriate Council Offices to ensure that they are proper[ly] informed about our preparedness for the weather event.”
As fires started to break out in Los Angeles just under an hour and a half later, the text messages showed concerns growing.
At 10:33 a.m., Chief Deputy Orin Saunders texted Crowley an LAFD alert showing that a brush fire had broken out in the Pacific Palisades area.
“Two brush fires in the city. Palisades and Hollywood,” Crowley wrote to someone at 10:35 a.m.
“Sending over staff now,” she texted Parks minutes later. “I would recommend level 2,” indicating an increase in resources.
Parks responded, “EOC staff have some concerns now that we have two fires.”
By 10:58 a.m., videos posted on social media already showed plumes of smoke dangerously close to residential blocks.
At 11:27 a.m., Crowley sent a message to an individual asking for “Harris-Dawson’s number please.”
“I just asked him for his phone number and he said he will call you,” the recipient responded.
Six minutes later, Parks wrote to Crowley, “The EOC is in need of leadership. Pls advise who from your department can respond to the EOC asap,” with Crowley responding that a chief was en route.
Voluntary evacuation orders in the Palisades area were issued at 11:44 a.m.
“Anything else you can send us, we will take it,” Crowley wrote to fire officials in neighboring counties at 12:02 p.m. “Star[t]ing to [lose] home[s] and people trapped.”
At 2:27 p.m., Crowley texted a fire official, “Can you send me the number … of resources and type assigned to the palisades incident?”
At the same time, according to videos posted to social media, cars had already been abandoned alongside busy roads.
At 3 p.m., Crowley received a text stating, “Marqueece here Chief. At command post, eager to connect.”
Hours later at 5:54 p.m., California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on social media that he had declared a state of emergency to support communities impacted by the Palisades fire.
At 6:18 p.m. in Altadena, which is across Los Angeles County from the Pacific Palisades area and outside of city limits, the Eaton fire began, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Eight minutes later, the LAFD posted on social media that all off-duty LAFD members needed to call the Department Operations Center “with their availability for recall.”
At 7:19 p.m., Parks, the emergency manager, texted, “EOC Directors are recommending that we move to Level 1,” adding that the Level 1 status — the highest level of emergency management — would start the next morning.
At 7:22 p.m., Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Chief Executive Officer Janisse Quiñones asked Crowley if “we can safely access this point,” adding that “we got evacuated before installing a reg station” and that otherwise “we will run out of water in about 2 hours.”
The Department of Water and Power is currently facing a lawsuit from Pacific Palisades residents alleging that it was unprepared for a fire of this sort. The agency previously told ABC News that it does not comment on pending litigation, but issued a statement before the lawsuit was filed.
“The water system serving the Pacific Palisades area and all of Los Angeles meets all federal and state fire codes for urban development and housing,” the statement said. “LADWP built the Pacific Palisades water system beyond the requirements to support the community’s typical needs.”
‘I have not been fired’
The Palisades fire would not be fully contained until the end of the month. By that time, it had burned more than 23,000 acres. The Eaton Fire had torn through 14,000 acres. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble and 29 people were dead.
In the days after the Palisades fire first broke out, Crowley received numerous messages of support.
“Getting mixed news reports about your future employment. If you need expert testimony in the future or simply a Jersey Guy to come out there and straighten things out with the pols, you have my number,” an unidentified individual texted on Jan. 11.
“Good to hear from you,” Crowley responded. “I have not been fired. Thanks for looking out for me.”
Bass went on to fire Crowley on Feb. 21. Crowley, who opted to take a civil service demotion to a lower rank, is appealing her dismissal. The Los Angeles City Council is expected to discuss the personnel matter on Tuesday. The council can override Bass’ move to terminate the chief.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration could be sanctioned by a federal judge later this week after lawyers with the Department of Justice advised a federal judge Tuesday evening that they will not make a top administration official available for sworn testimony.
U.S. District Judge Charles Alsup had sought to have the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Charles Ezell, testify on Thursday about the mass firing of probationary employees.
But the DOJ said Tuesday that they would not make Ezell available for testimony.
By making Ezell unavailable, DOJ attorneys also withdrew his sworn affidavit, a move that Judge Charles Alsup suggested would heavily increase the odds that the Trump administration loses the case, which involves the legality of firing thousands of probationary employees.
“Live testimony of Mr. Ezell is also not necessary, as a factual matter, because existing documentary evidence and briefing demonstrates that OPM is not directing agencies to terminate probationary employees,” DOJ lawyers argued.
A group of federal unions has alleged that Ezell lied in a sworn declaration that his office did not order the firing of probationary employees based on “performance or misconduct,” prompting Judge Alsup to order Ezell to testify in person and under oath in San Francisco on Thursday.
The Trump administration attempted to push back on the order — arguing in a filing Monday that the testimony raises “fundamental constitutional concerns.”
Judge Alsup late Monday denied their request to cancel the hearing.
“The problem here is that Acting Director Ezell submitted a sworn declaration in support of the defendant’s position but now refuses to appear to be cross examined or to be deposed,” Judge Alsup wrote in an order Monday night.
The plaintiffs allege that on Feb. 13, Ezell convened a phone call with the heads of federal agencies to direct them to terminate thousands of federal employees and “falsely state that the terminations are for performance reasons.”
In a sworn declaration last month, Ezell denied directing the terminations based on performance reasons, instead arguing that OPM only issued guidance to individual agencies about the need for probationary workers to “demonstrate why it is in the public interest” for the government to continue to employ them.
“OPM did not direct agencies to terminate any particular probationary employees based on performance or misconduct, and did not create a ‘mass termination program,’ as the plaintiffs in this matter described it,” Ezell wrote.
The groups challenging the firings in court say that was a lie, and Judge Alsup appeared inclined to agree during a court hearing last month.
“How could so much of the work force be amputated suddenly overnight? It’s so irregular and so widespread and so aberrant from the history of our country,” Judge Alsup said. “How could that all happen with each agency deciding on its own to do something so aberrational?”
“I don’t believe it,” said the judge. “I believe they were directed or ordered to do so by OPM in that telephone call. That’s the way the evidence points.”
The allegations about the mass firings comes as the Trump administration faces increased scrutiny about the role of the Department of Government Efficiency in reducing the size of the federal government. During a cabinet meeting last week, Trump told the heads of the federal agencies that they are in charge of making cuts to their own departments, rather than Elon Musk and DOGE.
(SAN DIEGO) — A fighter jet crashed into the San Diego Harbor on Wednesday, with the two pilots on board ejecting before being rescued by the Coast Guard, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue.
A Navy official didn’t confirm if one or two people were on the two-seat EA-18G Growler, but said the crew was successfully recovered.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
