Three dead, 15 injured in shooting at park in New Mexico
Las Cruces Police Department
(LAS CRUCES, N.M.) — Three people were killed and 15 were injured in a shooting at a park in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Friday night, according to police.
The deceased are two 19-year-old men and one 16-year-old boy. The injured range in age from 16 years to 36 years, according to a police statement to ABC News on Saturday.
Police were dispatched to the shooting shortly after 10 p.m. Friday at Young Park, the Las Cruces Police Department said.
“Officers arrived and learned of multiple gunshot victims. Most were transported to local hospitals. Some were taken to University Medical Center of El Paso,” police said.
The names of the dead and injured will not be released at this time, the police department said.
At a press conference Saturday morning, Las Cruces officials said an unsanctioned car show was being held at the park prior to the shooting. There was an altercation between two groups of people that led to an exchange of gunfire.
Police said they have not made any arrests, but are actively following leads.
“Las Cruces police is receiving assistance on this investigation from the FBI, ATF, New Mexico State Police and the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office,” authorities said.
Young Park and all roadways leading to the park are temporarily closed while investigators conduct their work.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will order a “national energy emergency” and issue a “presidential memorandum on inflation” as part of a slew of executive actions on his first day in office, incoming White House officials told reporters Monday morning.
Among the actions described by the official includes orders related to transgender Americans, as well as orders aimed at the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies.
Trump and his advisers have also prepared an executive order directing the incoming attorney general and the heads of all departments and agencies to review law enforcement conduct over the last four years, multiple sources familiar with the matter said.
That order — which advisers are calling “ending weaponization in the federal government” — doesn’t explicitly direct any criminal investigations, but asks for a review of law enforcement activity and actions taken by the intelligence community over the course of Joe Biden’s presidency.
It’s not clear if Trump will sign that order on Monday, but it’s a sign that Trump’s administration plans to “investigate the investigators,” as he has previously indicated he would.
Economic actions
As part of Trump’s executive actions that are expected to be signed “as soon as possible,” officials said Trump will “put an end to the [Biden administration’s] electric vehicle mandate.” Another order will focus solely on Alaska, which officials said has “an incredible abundance of natural resources.”
Officials said these moves were not only intended to spur the economy and bring down costs, but also “strengthen our nation’s national security,” citing the impending “AI race with China.”
The primary order Trump is expected to sign Monday will focus on “unleashing” American energy, which officials said would emphasize “cutting the red tape and the burdens and regulations that have held back our economy, have held back investments, job creation and natural resource production.”
The national energy emergency Trump expects to sign will “unlock a variety of different authorities that will enable our nation to quickly build again, to produce more natural resources, to create jobs, to create prosperity and to strengthen our nation’s national security,” officials said.
Officials did not share details on the presidential memorandum to address inflation, saying only that it would be an “all-of-government approach to bringing down costs for all American citizens.”
Drilling reached record highs during the Biden administration — but Biden he also took executive actions to ban future offshore oil and natural gas drilling on America’s East and West coasts, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Bering Sea.
Transgender actions
Incoming Trump White House officials outlined a series of first-day executive actions that they described as efforts to “restore sanity,” including executive orders declaring that the U.S. government will only recognize a person’s gender assigned at birth, prohibiting federal funds from being used in programs that acknowledge people who identify as transgender.
Among the most tangible changes Americans might see is a change to passports, rescinding a rule under Biden that allowed Americans to mark “X” as their gender marker on their U.S. passport applications.
Trump also plans to rescind rules set by Biden that withheld federal money from schools, including colleges, unless they followed certain rules to protect trans students from harassment.
Entities that receive federal dollars like prisons and shelters also would have to designate “single sex” spaces, officials said, assigning people to certain areas based on their gender assigned at birth.
In announcing the changes, which could have sweeping implications, officials took few questions from reporters and did not provide specifics.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These are sexes that are not changeable, and they are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” one official said.
DEI actions
The incoming official said orders related to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the federal government are intended to create “equal treatment” and end DEI in the federal government.
Saying it was “very fitting” for the orders to be coming on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the official said orders will ask for the Office of Management and Budget and The U.S. Office of Personnel Management to coordinate with the various agencies to “terminate” all DEI programs in the agency, including positions that have been renamed.
This also includes environmental justice programs, equity related grants, equity action plans, and equity initiatives, according to the official.
There will also be a monthly meeting planned between members of the Department of Justice and Deputy Secretary of Trump admin agencies to assess any other DEI programs that officials plan to dismantle further, the official said.
Specific programs the orders will look to end include the Federal Aviation Administration recruiting “individuals who suffer from severe intellectual disabilities” and the USDA spending a billion dollars on environmental justice.
While the action does not address any private companies’ use of DEI programs, the incoming Trump official, when asked, said to “wait and see” regarding further action regarding private companies.
“Private business should wait and see. We have more actions on DEI very soon,” the official said.
Iincoming Trump White House officials did not share the specific text of Trump’s planned executive orders. They will be circulated to the press once they are signed by the president, officials said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(FULTON COUNTY, GA) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday satisfied the judgment against him that required him to pay two Fulton County election workers a total of $148 million for defamation.
A jury found Giuliani liable in 2023 for defaming Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss by falsely accusing them of tampering with the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia.
In the process of reaching a settlement in January, he was held in contempt twice, by two different federal judges, for failing to relinquish possessions and continuing to defame the two election workers.
Court documents showed that the settlement action was dismissed in district court on Monday after it was determined that Giuliani had fully satisfied his obligations to Freeman and Moss.
Giuliani began surrendering assets soon after a federal jury determined what he should pay Freeman and Moss in damages and penalties in December 2024.
The settlement last month allowed him to keep his condo in Florida and his World Series rings.
A statement from Giuliani at the time of the settlement said that he would agree not to further defame the two election workers. It did not include an admission of guilt.
Giuliani was previously disbarred in New York and in Washington after his law license was stripped over his efforts to aid President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.
His representative, Ted Goodman, said in a statement last month that the plaintiffs’ attorneys could take the possessions from the former Trump lawyer, “but they can never take away his extraordinary record of public service.”
(LOS ANGELES) — With mass layoffs taking place at the Department of Education, the superintendent for the nation’s second largest public school system says the closure of the department would bring “catastrophic harm” if there is any reduction to the federal funding that students in his district receive.
In a video statement, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the county receives hundreds of millions of dollars for low-income students and others.
“We receive an excess of $750 million earmarked for poor students, English language learners, students with disabilities, and connectivity investments so that students can be connected with their learning, breakfast and lunch programs,” Carvalho said.
The Department of Education initiated mass layoffs on Tuesday night, reducing its workforce by nearly 50%, sources told ABC News.
The “reduction in force” notices began to go out Tuesday at about 6 p.m. ET
Some 1,315 employees were affected by the RIFs, leaving 2,183 employed by the department, according to senior officials at the DOE.
“Any reduction at the federal level, specific to these investments will bring about catastrophic harm in Los Angeles and across the country,” Carvalho said.
A statement released Tuesday from the Department of Education said that the DOE will “continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.”
“This is primarily a streamlining effort for internal facing roles and not external facing roles,” a senior DOE official said of the layoffs.
