(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday is forecast to be the coldest in 40 years.
An arctic front will pass by Washington, D.C., on Sunday night and winds will pick up out of the northwest, ushering in arctic air.
Monday’s temperature will be at its highest — about 25 degrees — when the clock strikes Inauguration Day at midnight. Throughout the course of the day, the temperature will slowly fall.
When Trump is sworn in at noon, the temperature will be about 18 or 19 degrees. Due to the wind, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — will be between 5 and 10 degrees.
By 7 p.m., when the inauguration balls begin, the temperature will be near 13 degrees with a wind chill of minus 1.
The coldest January Inauguration Day on record was 1985 for President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration.
The temperature that morning fell to a low of 4 degrees below zero. The temperature was just 7 degrees at noon, moving Reagan’s swearing-in ceremony inside and canceling the parade.
The daytime high was only 17 degrees.
The warmest January inauguration was also for Reagan, in 1981, at a balmy 55 degrees.
The warmest inauguration ever was 89 degrees on Aug. 9, 1974, when President Gerald Ford was sworn in following President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
Inaugurations used to be held in March until the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933, stating that the president’s term began at noon on Jan. 20.
One of the most memorable January inaugurations was President John F. Kennedy’s in 1961. A snowstorm struck D.C. the night before, and the 8 inches of snow forced people to ditch their cars and created a massive traffic jam.
(LOS ANGELES) — As strong winds in Southern California pick up further early on Tuesday, a “particularly dangerous situation” with a red flag warning will go into effect in western Los Angeles County and most of Ventura County, weather officials said.
The warning begins at 4 a.m. local time. Winds are forecast to gust between 45 mph to 70 mph, with relative humidity as low as 8%.
Those strong winds and dry conditions are likely continue to fuel the historic wildfires raging in Southern California.
The largest, the Palisades Fire, has spread by late Monday to almost 24,000 acres with only 14% containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Thousands of firefighters are battling the blazes across 45 square miles of densely populated Los Angeles County.
Winds overnight and early on Tuesday have been gusting up to 67 mph in the mountains near Los Angeles. The West San Gabriel Mountains have seen gusts up to 67 mph, with the Central Ventura County Valley hit about 66 mph.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the gusty Santa Ana winds will come in periods.
The strongest gusts are expected Tuesday morning and early afternoon, which will then be followed by a break in the evening. More gusty winds are expected Wednesday morning.
It has been so dry that any spark could produce major fire that would grow explosively. The weather in Los Angeles last year and early this year has been the second-driest water year on record to date. Water years are recorded from Oct. 1 to Sept. 2, with records going back to 1877.
After Wednesday, winds will begin to calm down and by Friday and Saturday humidity will come up a bit. There a very small chance for a rain shower Friday into Saturday across southern California.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Top white shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell will represent President Donald Trump as he appeals his criminal hush money conviction in New York, according to court filings Wednesday.
The new attorneys filed a notice of appeal Wednesday, signaling their intention to appeal Trump’s conviction to New York’s Appellate Division, First Department.
Among Trump’s new lawyers is firm co-chair Robert J. Giuffra.
“President Donald J. Trump’s appeal is important for the rule of law, New York’s reputation as a global business, financial and legal center, as well as for the presidency and all public officials,” Giuffra said in a statement. “The misuse of the criminal law by the Manhattan DA to target President Trump sets a dangerous precedent, and we look forward to the case being dismissed on appeal.”
The change in attorneys followed Trump’s naming of his former lead attorneys, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and John Sauer, to top roles in the Justice Department.
Blanche has been nominated for deputy attorney general, Sauer as solicitor general, and Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general.
Sauer led Trump’s successful appeals, including at the U.S. Supreme Court, that led to the dismissals of federal prosecutions in Trump’s Jan. 6 and classified documents cases.
Blanche and Bove led the defense team at Trump’s criminal trial in New York that ended in Trump’s conviction last May on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, sentenced Trump prior to his inauguration to an unconditional discharge, sparing Trump any prison time, fines or probation.
Roughly half of California’s farm workers are undocumented immigrants. Via ABC News
(LOS ANGELES) — California’s Central Valley is considered “America’s bread basket,” supplying a quarter of the nation’s food and producing 40% of its fruits, nuts and other table foods.
However, roughly half of California’s farm workers are undocumented immigrants, so President Donald Trump’s plan to fast track mass deportation and the images of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the country have spread fear on these farms.
It started shortly before Trump returned to office on Jan. 20. The U.S. Border Patrol raids in Central Valley’s southern Kern County — dubbed “Operation Return to Sender” — hit close to home for people in the region.
“Op Return to Sender brought 78 undocumented noncitizens, many w/criminal records, out of the shadows,” USBP Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino wrote in a Jan. 16 post on X.
The people arrested didn’t all have criminal records, and immigrant rights groups say fear is trickling through undocumented workers.
“You have families that are being ripped apart. You have community members that are living in fear,” immigration attorney Ana Alicia Huerta told ABC News. “They’re scared to go outside. They’re asking neighbors and friends who have status to drive them back and forth because they’re concerned that they may be targeted.”
Advocacy groups say the raids have prompted some farmworkers to stay home, which could reduce the harvesting of produce and other goods.
“It’s not easy to live in fear, when we are the ones putting food on your table,” farmworker Xochilt Nuñez told ABC News in Spanish. “Since the beginning I’ve said, do not bite the hand that feeds you.”
Nuñez has worked in the fields of Central Valley for 16 years, and said she loves the feeling of the soil, the smell and “la libertad” — the freedom of the fields.
“We are glad to be at work at 6 a.m. and have an hour commute,” she said. “We do it happily, from the bottom of our hearts. Because we love this soil.”
She noted that immigrants are “living in terror” because they’re concerned immigration officials will come to the fields. She also expressed concern that farm workers staying home for fear of deportation or actually getting deported may result in produce prices increasing due to a labor shortage.
“Can you believe there are people who have been here for more than 35 years, working, paying taxes and do not have the right to a work permit?” Nuñez said. “We need to be empathetic with those people. Because they do not rest — and the economy lays on their backs.”
The United Farm Workers Foundation, the largest union representing America’s farmworkers, held a virtual press briefing in January after Border Patrol detained at least two of their union members.
“Both members had lived and worked in the United States for over 15 years,” they said. “One leaves behind two children under the age of 10, and the other leaves behind four children between the ages of four and 10.”
Elizabeth Strater, national vice president and director of strategic campaigns for the UFW, said that a report claiming 75% of farm workers were staying home from work is not accurate. She noted that the workers can’t afford to miss work, especially since it is peak harvest season for citrus.
“Farm workers are enduring great anxiety after the chaotic immigration sweeps targeting farmworker communities earlier this month. They still have to provide for their families,” she said. “Regardless of status, they all deserve better than to be profiled and terrorized for simply doing the work it takes to feed this country.”
Some immigrant families are too afraid to leave home to even get groceries, prompting groups like Latino nonprofit Celebration Nation to set up food drives. Its founder, Flor Martinez Zaragoza, told ABC News the group will be feeding farm workers every day for the next six weeks.
“It’s very ironic that we’re feeding those that feed the nation because they’re very food insecure,” she said during a food drive in Fresno.
In Kern County, rapid response groups are teaming up with immigration attorneys like Huerta — she emphasized that people have rights regardless of their status.
“If you’re arrested, don’t sign anything,” she said. “Ask to speak to an attorney.”
Huerta said this isn’t the first time her community has had to fight for their humanity. Central Valley is home to famed labor organizers and civil rights leaders like her grandmother Dolores Huerta, along with César Chávez.
Three generations later, their grandchildren are carrying on that legacy. Andrés Chávez does so as the executive director of the National Chavez Center.
“If there’s anything that the last week has taught us, it’s that it’s going to be a long four years. And so folks like myself and groups like ourselves are having to prepare for this long-term fight,” he told ABC News. “And I think back to my tata César’s words — he would always say, ‘You only lose when you give up.'”
