‘Significant development’ in case against accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann
James Carbone/Newsday RM via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Prosecutors on Long Island plan to announce a “significant development” in their case against accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann on Tuesday, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
The architect and father has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the murders of six women whose remains were found in a remote spot along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and parts of eastern Long Island.
Prosecutors have also linked him to the death of several other unsolved killings — including that of Valerie Mack, a New Jersey woman whose remains were discovered in Manorville and near Gilgo Beach. Like the other women, the prosecutors have said she was also involved in sex work.
Prosecutors named Heuermann a suspect in Mack’s death in June based on evidence allegedly found on an electronic device seized from Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park on Long Island. Prosecutors have said Heuermann kept detailed notes about serial killings, body disposal and torture pornography.
A spokeswoman for Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to comment.
Heuermann, 61, is scheduled to appear in court in Riverhead at 9:30 a.m.
Tourism Emissions Project Team, University of Queensland
(NEW YORK) — The carbon footprint from the travel industry is growing at rates never seen before, according to new research.
An increasing demand for international travel over the past decade has led to higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions every year, according to a paper published in Nature Communications on Tuesday.
Greenhouse gas emissions from international tourism are growing at a rate of 3.5% every year — about twice as fast as the overall economy, Ya-Yen Sun, an associate professor at The University of Queensland in Australia and an author of the study, told ABC News.
In the top 20 countries associated with the highest tourism emissions, tourism may be growing “too fast” — up to 5% every year — which is causing those regions to expend more energy to provide services to more visitors, Sun said.
There are also disparities in per-capita tourism emissions, with the 20 highest-emitting countries — including the United States, China and India — contributing three-quarters of the total carbon footprint, the paper found.
Modes of transportation, including air and ground travel, are particular contributors to emissions given their carbon-intensive nature, according to the paper. Slow gains in the efficiency of technology have also contributed to the rise in emission rates from global tourism, the researchers said.
While travel halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism came roaring back with a vengeance once the global health threat subsided, which has flooded the travel sector with even more rapid growth, Sun said.
Travel dropped by 60% during the pandemic, but tourism is expected to have fully recovered by the end of 2024, she added.
“We found this is something [that really needs] a lot of attention, because people just enjoy travel,” Sun said.
Carbon dioxide emissions from private planes have increased significantly in recent years, a separate paper published last month in the journal Communications Earth & Environment found.
Annual CO2 emissions from private aviation increased by 46% between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis of flight tracker data from 18,655,789 private flights flown by 25,993 registered business jet-type private aircraft. Some individuals who regularly use private aviation may produce almost 500 times more CO2 in a year than the average individual, the paper found.
There were significant emissions peaks around certain international events, the study found. COP28 — the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Dubai — was associated with 644 private flights, which produced 4,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup, also hosted in the United Arab Emirates, was associated with 1,846 private flights, producing an estimated 14,700 metric tons of CO2, the study found.
However, private aviation only accounts for about 7.9% of total aviation emissions, the paper found.
A previous study that Sun conducted in 2018 found that tourism contributes to about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That number is likely much higher today, Sun said.
“The sector has not made much progress in terms of decarbonizing itself,” she said.
Sun described the findings of the new paper out Tuesday as “quite problematic” because it showcases that emissions from tourism are growing every year,
The paper highlighted the urgent need for effective policy measures to align the tourism sector with global climate goals, the researchers said.
In order to do this, countries will need to begin to monitor tourism emissions at the national level, something that only New Zealand and Denmark are currently doing, Sun said.
It is especially important considering tourism is one of the biggest economic sectors in the world, as people require transportation, food, accommodation and shopping when they travel, Sun said. The global tourism industry was worth an estimated $10 trillion in 2023, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
“We found this is something really in need of a lot of attention, because people just enjoy travel,” Sun said.
(MIAMI) — Two people are dead, and two others have been injured after a man allegedly attacked a group of homeless people with a stick, police said.
Police in Miami, Florida, say that units responded after 6 a.m. on Thursday to reports of an armed male who was “beating up people,” according to Miami Chief of Police Manuel Morales during a news conference.
Several people — all of whom were homeless — were attacked during the incident, according to Morales.
Police believe the suspect first attacked one homeless male, then traveled eastbound and found another man before attacking him with a stick as well, authorities said.
The suspect then proceeded to attack a homeless couple across the street from the second suspect, ultimately leaving two of the victims dead and two others injured, Morales said.
Officers at the scene identified the suspect who fled, and following a foot pursuit the suspect was in police custody.
The suspect was not identified but police confirmed that he is 30-years-old and has no known criminal history in the area but does have a record of some “minor” criminal activity in New York, Morales said.
Authorities believe these attacks are examples of “unprovoked violence” but the investigation into the deadly assault remains open.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(ATLANTA) — The state prosecution of Donald Trump on election interference charges in Georgia may be able to continue despite his impending inauguration, a lawyer for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis signaled in a court filing that urged an appeals court to reject the president-elect’s request to throw out the case based on presidential immunity.
The filing argued that Trump’s lawyers failed to demonstrate why a state prosecution would be subject to the Department of Justice memorandum prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting presidents — which was cited by special counsel Jack Smith when he wound down his federal cases against Trump — or impede Trump’s duties as president.
“Appellant does not specify or articulate how the appeal — or indeed, any other aspect of this case — will constitutionally impede or interfere with his duties once he assumes office,” Fulton County Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney F. McDonald Wakeford wrote.
“The notice makes mention of these concepts without actually examining them or applying them to the present circumstances. In other words, Appellant has not done the work but would very much like for this Court to do so,” the filing said.
According to the filing, state prosecutors are not bound by the Department of Justice’s policies, and past court decisions have not clearly established a precedent for state cases proceeding against a sitting president.
“Given these vague statements, to simply invoke the phrase ‘federalism and comity concerns,’ without more, offers nothing of substance,” the filing said, accusing Trump’s lawyer of making “sweeping legal generalizations which are either misleading or oversimplified” and providing “a smattering of quotations that are alternately mischaracterized or stripped of context.”
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Four defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Wakeford, in his filing, urged the Georgia Court of Appeals to reject or ignore Trump’s request to order the dismissal of the case, describing Trump’s recent filing as nothing more than a “decree.”
“The notice thus fails to adequately notify this Court of anything except for the outcome that Appellant would prefer — and expects — to see,” the filing said. “Such a filing is best understood as a decree. Appellant has provided this Court with half a thought and gestured toward a smattering of constitutional principles, and as a result, he feels entitled to instruct this Court as to what its conclusions are expected to be.”
The Georgia Court of Appeals took up Trump’s case after trial Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis over her romantic relationship with a fellow prosecutor, who was forced to resign from the case. Earlier this month, Trump’s lawyer sent the court a notice requesting they order the trial judge to dismiss the case based on Trump’s presidential immunity, which they argued applied to him as president-elect.
Wakeford, in his filing, categorically denied the existence of president-elect immunity.
“While the courts’ understanding of presidential immunity continues to evolve, ‘president-elect immunity’ obviously does not exist,” the filing said.
Wakeford also defended the integrity of the case against Trump, accusing the president-elect of using a “familiar tactic” when he argued the case is politically motivated.
“This case is thus the result of two separate grand juries and years of investigation, and any suggestion it is motivated by ‘possible local prejudice’ remains utterly unfounded,” the filing said.
