Winter weather hits Northeast as new storm system moves across country
People walk through snow in Manhattan on December 26, 2025 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Heavy snow fell from southern Connecticut through the Hudson Valley and into parts of upstate New York on Friday as most of Long Island saw anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of snow.
Meanwhile, the New York City area accumulated just short of 3 inches of snow as difficult travel conditions are expected through Saturday morning while crews work to clean up this wintry mess.
The winter storm is beginning to wrap up, but some lingering light snow and wintry mix will stick around through Saturday along the I-95 corridor as an additional inch of snow and a light glaze of ice will be possible across the region.
Meanwhile, low temperatures across the Northeast from Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh to the North and East will be near or below freezing on Saturday night, allowing for refreezing of any slush or snow that’s still on the ground.
Another system will move through the region late Sunday into Monday but will be mostly rain, though some wintry mix will be possible into higher elevations.
This weekend, a storm system will move from across the country and bring more snow to the inner mountain West on Saturday and eventually rain to the east on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Rocky Mountains will get snow from Idaho and Montana through Wyoming and Colorado. On Sunday, some snow may linger in the Colorado Rockies and into northern New Mexico.
Most of these mountain areas will see up to a foot of snow, but some areas could see up to 18 inches.
On Sunday, rain will pick up across the Midwest from Kansas and Missouri through Ohio and Pennsylvania while scattered thunderstorms are possible from Arkansas up to Ohio, with some possibly strong enough to bring gusty winds and maybe an isolated tornado.
This system is expected to continue to move through the East late Sunday through Monday, bringing rain for most and freezing rain for some in northern New England.
Next week is expected to start off wet for the East on Monday and will bring mostly rain to the East Coast, with some snow and wintry mix possible for the Great Lakes.
Most of the country should see dry and quiet weather leading up to New Year’s Eve, with the West seasonably warm and the East seasonably cooler.
After New Year’s, a new weather pattern will stick around for the start of 2026 as warmer temperatures should stick around for most of the West and reach down into parts of the South.
Meanwhile, the Upper Midwest and Northeast will be on the cooler side with an active pattern of quick-moving systems possible.
Passengers crowd at Los Angeles International Airport as the Independence Day holiday approaches on July 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (I RYU/VCG via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — This Christmas and New Year’s holiday period is expected to be the busiest on record.
More than 122 million people are expected to travel between Dec. 20 and Jan. 1 — a 2.2% jump from last year’s record high of 119.7 million travelers, according to AAA.
Here’s what you need to know before you head to the airport or hit the road:
Air travel About 8.03 million people are expected to fly within the U.S. over the holidays — a 2.3% increase from last year, according to AAA.
Florida, Southern California and Hawaii are topping the domestic destinations list for the holidays, according to AAA’s booking data, showing many travelers have decided to forgo a white Christmas for fun in the sun.
United Airlines said it is expecting its busiest winter holiday season ever, with the Saturday after Christmas — Dec. 27 — forecast to be the airline’s most crowded day.
American Airlines said its planning for four flights to depart each minute over its holiday period, from Dec. 18 through Jan. 5. American said its busiest day will be Friday, Dec. 19, followed by Sunday, Jan. 4.
Road travel About 109.5 million people are forecast to travel by car over the holidays, up 2% from last year, AAA said.
The weekend before Christmas — which falls on Saturday, Dec. 20, and Sunday, Dec. 21 — is expected to be especially busy, and so is the day after Christmas, Friday, Dec. 26, according to analytics company INRIX.
Christmas Day and New Year’s Day — which both fall on Thursdays — are anticipated to be the quietest days on the roads, INRIX said.
In this Sept. 20, 2013, file photo, Ghislaine Maxwell attends an event in New York. Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted co-conspirator of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, on Wednesday asked a federal court to vacate or correct her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking of minors and other offenses — a move that could complicate the release of the Epstein files as mandated by a new law.
Maxwell has exhausted all of her direct appeals, but filed a petition which contends “substantial new evidence has emerged” demonstrating she did not receive a fair trial, according to Maxwell’s filing in federal court in New York.
“This newly available evidence — derived from litigation against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, various financial institutions, and the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein, as well as from sworn depositions, released records, and other verified sources–shows that exculpatory information was withheld, false testimony presented, and material facts misrepresented to the jury and the Court,” Maxwell wrote in a habeas petition, which she filed “pro se” — without an attorney.
The petition alleges nine separate grounds — including juror misconduct and government suppression of evidence — for Maxwell’s contention that constitutional violations undermined the integrity of her 2021 trial.
“In the light of the full evidentiary record, no reasonable juror would have convicted her. Accordingly, she seeks vacatur of her conviction, an evidentiary hearing, and such other relief as this Court deems appropriate and justice requires,” Maxwell wrote in the 50-page filing, which was submitted to the court in seven separately scanned sections.
There are two gaps in the page numbers, which could be the result of an editing or filing error. After the documents first posted on the electronic case docket Wednesday afternoon, they were briefly taken down before appearing again. Maxwell’s handwritten signature appears at the end of the petition.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York declined to comment on Maxwell’s court filing.
Maxwell, 63, was convicted in 2021 — after a three-week trial in Manhattan federal court — of five felonies, including conspiracy, transportation of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and sex trafficking of a minor. A higher court rejected her post-trial appeals, and the Supreme Court declined to take up her case.
Many of the issues raised in Maxwell’s petition were addressed either at her trial or by the appellate court. She contends, however, that information and evidence previously unavailable to her and her attorneys has since emerged that should render her conviction “invalid, unsafe, and infirm.”
To prevail in a habeas petition, Maxwell would need to show that serious constitutional violations occurred during her trial or sentencing, or that significant new evidence has emerged demonstrating her innocence. A successful habeas petition could result in a new trial or a reduction of her sentence.
Maxwell’s last-ditch effort for relief from the courts comes as the Justice Department faces a Friday deadline to publicly disclose its investigative files on Epstein and Maxwell in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last month.
Maxwell’s newly filed petition presents a possible wrinkle in the long-running controversy. The Epstein Files Transparency Act contains exemptions permitting Attorney General Pam Bondi to withhold certain records if their publication could jeopardize active criminal investigations or prosecutions.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer granted a DOJ motion to lift restrictions on grand jury transcripts and other nonpublic records from the case, citing the requirement of the newly passed legislation. An attorney for Maxwell had argued that public disclosure of those materials would impact her ability to get a fair retrial if she were to succeed in her bid for a new trial.
“Releasing the grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial should Ms. Maxwell’s habeas petition succeed,” the lawyers wrote.
Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
Maxwell’s habeas submission cites to than 140 exhibits, including post-trial news articles and excerpts from podcasts, books and documentaries about the case in support of her claims of juror misconduct, suppression of evidence and allegedly improper coordination between prosecutors and attorneys for alleged victims. As of Wednesday afternoon, the exhibits had not yet been posted on the electronic docket of the case.
Maxwell devotes a substantial portion of her petition to a claim that the government failed to disclose to her defense team the prior state grand jury testimony of a former Palm Beach police officer who participated in a search of Epstein’s Florida home in 2005.
Retired officer Gregory Parkinson was on the stand for one of the Maxwell trial’s more dramatic moments, when prosecutors carried into the courtroom a green massage table that Parkinson testified was the same one he removed from a bathroom in Epstein’s seaside home following the execution of a search warrant.
Prosecutors said a manufacturer’s label indicating the table was made in California constituted proof of an interstate nexus to the sex-trafficking of a minor — the witness identified at trial as “Carolyn” — which was a critical element of the two most serious charges against Maxwell.
“So when Carolyn … was abused on a massage table that was manufactured in California, that proves that there was at least a minimal effect on interstate commerce, which is all that’s required for this count,” prosecutor Allison Moe said during closing arguments.
But Maxwell contends in her habeas petition that her lack of access to the state grand jury transcripts during her trial deprived her attorneys of the ability to cross-examine the retired officer about his previous sworn testimony. What Parkinson said in 2006, Maxwell argues, “conflicted with his trial testimony” about where the massage table was found and “undermined” the government’s assertions about a critical piece of evidence.
Parkinson’s testimony before the state grand jury in 2006 was made public in 2024 as a result of a lawsuit by the Palm Beach Post and a new state law specifically crafted to allow for the disclosure of the transcripts.
Earlier this year, Maxwell was transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp for women in Texas. That switch occurred less than two weeks after an unusual meeting in July between Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as personal counsel to President Trump.
Greene has been charged with one count of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement for alleging she was the victim of a politically motivated crime. Egg Harbor Township Police Department
A former congressional staffer has been accused of fabricating a violent attack against herself at a New Jersey park, according to a criminal complaint.
Natalie Greene, 26, paid a body modification artist to scar her and then claimed she had been assaulted in a politically motivated crime in July, the complaint alleges.
The Ocean City, New Jersey, native has been charged with one count of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a statement.
Greene previously worked for Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, his office told NBC.
A spokesperson for Van Drew declined to confirm her employment to ABC News.
Greene’s attorney, Louis Barbone, told ABC News she is innocent until proven guilty.
“At the age of 26, my client served her community working full time to assist the constituents of the Congressman with loyalty and fidelity. She did that while being a full-time student. Under the law, she is presumed innocent and reserves all of her defenses for presentation in a court of law,” Barbone said.
Prosecutors allege that Greene and a co-conspirator called 911 on July 23, saying that they had been attacked by three men with a gun at an Egg Harbor Township state park.
Law enforcement then found Greene in a wooded area bound with zip ties and lacerations on her head and chest, the criminal complaint alleges. A sexual slur referencing Trump and a statement calling her former employer “racist” were written on her stomach, according to photos from the crime scene reviewed by ABC News.
“The investigation revealed that Greene had not, in fact, been attacked by three men at gunpoint on July 23. Instead, Greene had paid a body modification and scarification artist to deliberately cut the lacerations on her face, neck, upper chest, and shoulder, based on a pattern that she had provided beforehand,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in the statement.
Law enforcement also found zip ties in Greene’s car allegedly consistent with the ones used to bind her on the night of the attack and discovered that Greene’s co-conspirator searched “zip ties near me,” according to prosecutors.
Greene told an FBI agent after the attack that she had been receiving threatening messages at work, and an investigation of her phone allegedly found messages with the modification/scarification artist in Pennsylvania, who gave law enforcement officers a copy of Greene’s receipt for $500 worth of scarification work, according to court documents.
Greene’s phone also allegedly revealed a Reddit profile that followed pages for “bodymods” and “scarification,” per court documents.
Greene was released on a $200,000 bond Wednesday after her arraignment, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines if convicted.
