SMITH COUNTYâ A Tyler woman was arrested Wednesday morning arrested after allegedly shooting at deputies and setting a trailer on fire while she was in it.
The Smith County Sheriffâs Office said at around 3:15 a.m., deputies responded to a call at on Horseshoe Ln due to a disturbance. The caller told officials a woman was causing damage to his property. Once deputies arrived to the scene, they could hear a woman, later identified as Rachel Marie Shell, 35 of Tyler, inside the trailer as well as crashing noises.
(LONDON) -- Nearly a quarter of the world's freshwater species are at risk of extinction, according to new research.
A detailed extinction assessment of more than 23,000 species of freshwater fauna by the International Union for Conservation of Nature identified major threats from pollution, dams, agriculture and invasive species, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The species studied included fish, decapod crustaceans -- such as crabs, crayfishes and shrimps -- and odonates, such as dragonflies and damsel flies. About 24% of those species are at risk of extinction, Catherine Sayer, lead of the freshwater biodiversity team for the IUCN, told ABC News.
"That means there are high to extremely high risks of becoming extinct in the future," Sayer said. "That's quite an alarming percentage."
Decapods have the highest percentage of species threatened at 30%, while 26% of freshwater fish and 16% of odonates are threatened, according to the analysis. Nearly 90 freshwater species have already been reported extinct, Sayer said.
Of the threatened species, 54% of studied species are thought to be affected by pollution.
Dams and water extraction are impacting 39% of the studied species, according to the paper.
"Dams completely block water courses, which means that species can't move downstream, and so they can't get to habitats that they previously used for breeding or feeding," Sayer said. "And that completely disrupts the lifecycle."
Land use change and associated effects from agriculture -- including the use of pesticides and herbicides -- are affecting 37% of the studied species, while 28% by invasive species and disease are impacting 28% of studied species.
Freshwater ecosystems are home to more than 10% of all known species and provide benefits such as nutrient cycling, flood control and climate change mitigation, the researchers said.
These species hold "intrinsic value" -- both ecologically and economically, Sayer said. Some species even hold cultural and spiritual value for indigenous groups, such is the case of the Atlantic salmon, Sayer said.
Other notable freshwater species that are threatened are the European eel, which is critically endangered, and several freshwater crustacean species in the Southeast United States, Sayer said.
Climate change is also threatening freshwater species and is expected to have more of an impact in the future, Sayer said. As global temperatures rise, it causes habitats to change, making it even easier for invasive species to thrive in ecosystems that were previous cooler, she added.
The analysis found that 18% of the freshwater species studied are threatened by climate change.
Since IUCN reassesses species every five to 10 years, researchers believe that if the analysis were repeated 10 years in the future that climate change would play a more prominent role in the decline of freshwater species.
"It's very much a threat that we see as intensifying, and it's it's getting worse with time," Sayer said.
The findings highlight the urgent need to address threats to prevent further species declines and losses and could help to inform future efforts to reduce the loss of freshwater biodiversity, the researchers said.
"We have about a quarter of species which are on their way to extinction if we don't do anything to stop it," Sayer said.
(WASHINGTON) -- President Joe Biden believes he could have won the 2024 election if he had decided to stay in the race, he told USA Today in a wide-ranging interview.
"It's presumptuous to say that, but I think yes," he told the newspaper during a nearly hourlong interview on Sunday. He said his view was based on polling he'd seen.
The president's comments come as he prepares to hand over the Oval Office to President-elect Donald Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
Biden, the oldest sitting president at 82, withdrew from the race in July, as questions about his age and fitness for office surged following a disastrous CNN debate performance in June.
Biden also told USA Today on Sunday that he was unsure if he would have had the vigor to serve another four years in office.
"I don't know. Who the hell knows?" Biden said, though he also added that when he first decided to run, he "also wasn't looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old."
Biden, who pardoned his son, Hunter, in December, said he has not decided whether to issue more preemptive pardons for potential Trump targets before leaving office in less than two weeks. When Biden and Trump met in the Oval Office after the election, Biden urged Trump not to follow through on his threats to target his opponents.
"I tried to make clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores," Biden said, adding that Trump "listened" but did not say what he planned to do.
If there were to be more preemptive pardons, Biden said the decision would be based "a little bit" on whom Trump taps for top administration roles.
Possible names being considered for pardons included current and former officials such as retired Gen. Mark Milley, former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, Sen. Adam Schiff and Dr. Anthony Fauci, ABC News previously reported.
Trump frequently attacks Biden's handling of the economy, including on Tuesday when he was asked about grocery prices during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort. But, in private, Biden said Trump was complimentary of his some of his actions.
"He was very complimentary about some of the economic things I had done," Biden said. "And he talked about -- he thought I was leaving with a good record."
Biden also reflected on his relationship with former President Jimmy Carter and his visit with Carter in Georgia in 2021 as he prepares to deliver the eulogy at Carter's state funeral in Washington on Thursday.
"We talked," Biden said. "He was not a big fan of my predecessor and successor. Well, he was never pointedly mean about it. But he was just very encouraging."
Looking beyond his time in office, Biden said he doesn't know yet where his presidential library will be, but ruled out his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He expressed his hope that it will end up in Delaware, but didn't rule out the University of Pennsylvania either.
Pamela Anderson says her latest role in the Gia Coppola-directed film The Last Showgirl is close to her heart and one she's "really proud of."
During an interview with Good Morning America, the actress said the script by Kate Gersten had many parallels with her own life, so she felt confident she could take on the role from the beginning.
"There's lots that I identified with," Anderson told GMA about her connection to her character, Shelly, a seasoned showgirl forced to find her next act after the Las Vegas revue she's headlined for decades announces its final show.
"I'd never received a script like this," she explained. "It had so many beautiful characters, so fully written and a great story and just the glamor. I couldn't wait to get started."
Anderson's co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays a former showgirl turned bevertainer, echoed the praise for the storyline, telling GMA the film is about "resilience, particularly, the resilience of women."
Reflecting on her mindset ahead of officially landing the role, Anderson shared, "I couldnât believe I was going to get this opportunity. So I just thought, if I never do anything else, I'm going to make sure I apply myself and throw everything at this that I know and have learned."
"It was just for me," she said. "I got to do something that I'm really proud of."
Anderson is already receiving praise for the film, which was shot in 18 days, from both critics and audiences alike. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a motion picture drama in December.
Gov. Greg Abbott outlined several directives to Texasâ Department of Public Safety on Tuesday that would boost efforts to combat âradical jihadist terrorismâ in the wake of the New Orleans attack on New Yearâs Day.
The statement from Abbott outlined 11 specific efforts for DPS to undertake, including bolstering pre-existing partnerships with federal agencies and expanding programs DPS provides in the state. The new measures come almost a week after a deadly attack in New Orleans in which a Houston man drove to the city in a rental truck and mowed down several people on Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring more than 30 others.
The suspect, Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who was killed by law enforcement, pledged allegiance to terrorist group ISIS in videos he posted online before the attack.
Most of the directives outlined by the governor are aimed at increasing or expanding anti-terror resources already in place. Included in those efforts will be increased anti-terrorism task force operations with the FBI, which has field offices in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso. The statement also said DPS will increase the number of intelligence analysts assigned to assist local jurisdictions with terroristic threats.
âLaw enforcement at all levels must aggressively collaborate to eliminate radicalization that can lead to terrorist attacks,â Abbott said.
One directive states DPS will work with federal officials to identify potential threats among âspecial interest migrantsâ and claimed hundreds of people who entered the country illegally were on the federal governmentâs terrorist watch list. In 2017-2023, 293 non-U.S. citizens on the Terrorist Screening Dataset were detained across the southwest border, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 169 of which were in 2023. The data available on CBPâs website does not clarify how many of those were within Texasâ portion of the border.
Republican lawmakers both in and out of Texas have long enmeshed criticisms of southern border security with concerns on foreign-based terrorism, renewed by Jabbarâs connection to ISIS. In 2016, Abbott claimed members of the terrorist organization were ârunning through the borderâ and blamed then-president Barack Obama.
In the hours immediately after the New Orleans attack, Fox News initially reported the truck Jabbar had rented recently crossed the Texas-Mexico border before the attack, prompting several Republicans including state Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, to call for âsecure borders.â Fox News later retracted the report, and officials confirmed the vehicle had crossed the border in November, prior to Jabbarâs renting.
The directive also indicated it would expand the Infrastructure Liaison Officer Program, which allows private security officials on how to receive training to collaborate with police and public safety officials. Currently the ILO program allows certification for those in certain fields to alert officials more easily to potential threats, and the governorâs office said it would provide additional certifications and coordination.
The statement did not clarify when any specific new program expansions would be implemented. Other policies the governorâs office outlined for DPS included assessing the vulnerability of the state Capitol to vehicle ramming attacks and partnering with local law enforcement for workshops and threat assessment strategies.
Original article published by the Texas Tribune. To read the original article, click here.
Star Wars legend Mark Hamill is among the Malibu residents who have had to evacuate the raging Los Angeles wildfires.
The actor revealed on Instagram Tuesday that he and his family fled their home.
â7pm-Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there [were] small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH [Pacific Coast Highway],â Hamill posted.
He added that he, his wife and their dog later arrived safely at their daughterâs house. âMost horrific fire since â93,â he wrote. âSTAY SAFE!â
Actor James Woods documented the spread of the Palisades Fire into homes in the hills around Los Angeles on Tuesday, writing in posts to social platform X that "all the smoke detectors are going off in our house" as the blaze approached.
âIt tests your soul, losing everything at once, I must say,â he wrote.
Other celebrities gave updates on the fires as well, including Mandy Moore, who evacuated her home, and The Hills stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, who shared on social media that their house had burned down.
More than 30,000 people were told to evacuate in Southern California on Tuesday after a fast-moving brush fire erupted in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood near Los Angeles. The fire has burned more than 2,900 acres.
By early Wednesday morning, the Eaton Fire â which broke out miles away from the Palisades Fire, in Altadena, California, prompting immediate evacuations â had spread 1,000 acres.
The Hurst Fire, meanwhile, erupted and spread northeast of San Fernando, California, burning at least 500 acres.
Extreme winds have made the fires difficult to contain, fire officials said.
âWe wouldnât surviveâ without undocumented workers, one South Texas produce business owner said. By one estimate, 8% of Texasâ workforce lacks legal status.
In Texas, undocumented people have built apartment complexes and skyscrapers that changed skylines. They have picked fruits and vegetable in fields, cooked in restaurant kitchens, cleaned hospitals and started small businesses. They have become stitched into communities from El Paso to Beaumont.
Now some of their employers worry that many of them could get deported when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
A number of Texas business leaders interviewed by the Tribune describe a sort of wait-and-see apprehension about Trumpâs pledged mass deportations. The impact any deportations could have on Texasâ economy will largely depend on the specifics of what Trump does, business leaders say. But those specifics are not yet clear.
âI donât think any of us know exactly whatâs coming as far as policy â weâve heard all of the rhetoric,â said Andrea Coker of the North Texas Commission, a nonprofit that promotes the Dallas region.
The owner of a Rio Grande Valley agriculture import-export business who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of legal repercussions said four of his seven employees are undocumented. A majority of similar businesses would take a hit should the government deport undocumented people en masse, the business owner estimated.
Without undocumented workers, he said, âWe wouldn’t survive and we’ll have to close.”
He said he hired undocumented workers because he struggled to find U.S. citizens and legal residents willing to do the grueling work.
“The people who are here legally don’t want to work here. They’d rather collect unemployment,” he said. “We’ve hired people who were documented, but they don’t last.”
In speaking about mass deportations, Trump and his incoming aides have said they will prioritize deporting people with a criminal history, while also noting that anyone who has entered the country illegally has committed a crime. Any large-scale deportation plans are sure to face legal and logistical challenges.
But Texasâ state leaders are eager to help Trump, and the state is a target-rich environment. The Pew Research Center estimates that unauthorized immigrants make up approximately 8% of the stateâs workforce, including a large presence in the hospitality, restaurants, energy and construction industries.
The state comptrollerâs office did a study in 2006 to find out how the state economy would look without the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants living in Texas in 2005. The study said their absence would cost the state about $17.7 billion in gross state product â a measure of the value of goods and services produced in Texas. The state has not updated the study since; analysis replicated by universities and think tanks have reached similar conclusions that undocumented Texans contribute more to the economy than they cost the state.
âWe know that immigrants are punching above their weight,â said Jaime Puente, director of economic opportunity at the left-leaning nonprofit Every Texan. âWe are looking at a significant loss of productivity.â
Among major Texas industries, construction has the highest proportion of undocumented workers, according to the Pew Research Center. Mass deportations could disrupt the stateâs homebuilding industry in the midst of a housing shortage, which could lead to fewer new homes built and even higher home prices and rents, according to housing experts.
A recent paper from researchers at the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin-Madison explored the aftermath of the deportation of more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants nationwide from 2008 to 2013. In the places where deportations happened, the study found, homebuilding contracted because the local construction workforce shrank and home prices rose. The researchers discovered that other construction workers lost work too because homebuilders cut back on new developments.
âWe really find ourselves in the situation where anything that kind of disrupts the process of [adding] housing supply would be detrimental to the housing affordability crisis,â said Riordan Frost, a senior research analyst at Harvard Universityâs Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Stan Marekâs Czech grandfather arrived in Houston in 1938 and began hanging sheetrock. Nearly 100 years later, Marekâs family owns a large Houston-based construction firm with roughly 1,000 employees.
âI have watched the stages of immigration,â said Marek, 77. âEighty-five years later and our immigrants are here, and like theyâve always been, to do the work that no one else wants to do or can do.â
Marek sees a long overdue opportunity to fix a lingering mess â the countryâs immigration laws. He said deportations âwill be terribly expensive and terribly nonproductiveâ but granting widespread amnesty to undocumented people would not work either.
Marek believes giving a path to citizenship to people who arrived in the country as children and received deportation protection through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, could help the state reduce its workforce shortage. He also believes in the creation of a similar program for adults to gain legal status â which he calls âAdult DACAâ â so that they can work legally.
âItâs not just construction. Whoâs picking all the fruit and all the vegetables? Whoâs milking all those cows? Every job you look at all over the United States, there are immigrants,â Marek said. âWe gotta have the business community step up. Thatâs the key because the business community, more than anybody, is responsible for the labor.â
In the oil-rich Permian Basin, mass deportations could reduce populations in cities and in turn result in closed businesses and the disappearance of sales tax dollars, said Virginia Bellew, executive director of the Permian Basin Regional Planning Commission.
âI think you’ve seen communities just waiting [to see what Trump does], don’t want to take any steps to predict, discuss, or make decisions,â Bellew said.
In Austin, a 43-year-old man who arrived from Mexico 25 years ago said his first job involved sweeping up debris at a construction site for less than $8 an hour. Today he is a foreman for a general contractor, supervising projects and coordinating crews. He asked his name not be published for fear of jeopardizing his pending residency application.
He said he is not letting himself be consumed by the fear of Trump’s promises of mass deportations. He has deep roots in Texas now. He and his wife have raised their three kids in Austin in a house they built themselves.
His kids are U.S. citizens and his wife has legal status through DACA. Heâs in the process of applying for legal residency through his eldest daughter, a student at St. Edwardâs University in Austin.
âI try to be a great citizen,â he said in Spanish. â[Trump] can not deport everyone because there are so many of us who are indispensable to this country.â
This article was originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
EAST TEXAS — According to our news partner KETK’s Chief Meteorologist Carson Vickroy, “Weâve got one more day before our first, and hopefully only wintry event of the year. Weâll observe our third consecutive hard freeze tomorrow morning followed by temperatures being well below average tomorrow afternoon. (Highs in the low to middle 40s). The storm system is over the Rockies right now and will be making it in to Texas tomorrow night with the first bouts of precipitation arriving Thursday morning.
Precipitation will gradually increase throughout the day Thursday. I expect weâll mostly snow/sleet north of highway 80 (1?-2?), with the highest amounts along and north of Interstate 30 (2?-4?+). Further south it gets more interesting. Iâve said over the last couple of days that places like Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville, & Henderson are in the wintry âBattlezone.â This means that precipitation type is unclear and could change several times during this event. Continue reading Winter Storm Watch issued for portion of East Texas
TYLER — The Texas Medical Board has suspended a Tyler medical professional after determining he poses âa continuing threat to public welfareâ following his arrest for murder. According to our news partner KETK, the board announced Monday that Scott Lee Gobleâs respiratory care practitioner certificate was temporarily suspended following his arrest. A temporary suspension hearing will be held soon, however his suspension remains in place until the Board takes further action.
According to an arrest affidavit, the Tyler Police Department was dispatched to Juniorâs Taco on 3815 South Southwest Loop 323 at around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, after receiving calls from someone claiming their father had just shot someone at the restaurant. When officers arrived, they located a gunshot victim, later identified as Heriberto Ramirez, who had sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Records show Ramirez was taken to a local hospital where he later died from his injuries. Continue reading Medical board suspends Tyler professional following murder charge
Oh, lordy. Jacob Elordi is in talks to replace Paul Mescal in Ridley Scott's upcoming thriller, The Dog Stars. Variety first reported that Elordi is in early negotiations to take over the starring role in the post-apocalyptic film after Mescal ran into scheduling issues. Mescal was forced to drop the part due to filming for his role as Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes' The Beatles anthology films. If the deal closes, Elordi will play a pilot named Hig who befriends a gunman in a world where a flu virus has nearly wiped out all of humanity ...
Florence Pugh says she's learned how to protect herself from giving too much to her acting roles. While guesting on a recent episode of the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, Pugh said she has previously been broken for a long time after playing certain characters. "Like when I did Midsommar, I definitely felt like I abused myself in the places that I got myself to go to," Pugh said, "which is the nature of figuring these things out is you need to go, 'All right, well, I can't do that again, cause that was too much.'" ...
Amy Schumer pretends to be pregnant in the new trailer for Netflix's Kinda Pregnant. The film, which will debut on the streamer on Feb. 5, follows Lainy, played by Schumer, a woman who is so jealous of her best friend's pregnancy she wears a fake baby bump. Jillian Bell, Will Forte, Damon Wayans Jr. and Alex Moffat also star in the comedy, which was produced by Adam Sandler and Schumer ...
The new season of Squid Game is a hit. The sequel to the Emmy-winning Korean drama series racked up more than 126 million views in just 11 days â a new record for Netflix ...
(WASHINGTON) -- President-elect Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent Friday's sentencing in his New York criminal hush money case.
In a filing Wednesday, defense lawyers argued that a New York judge lacks the authority to sentence the president-elect until Trump exhausts his appeal based on presidential immunity.
"This Court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government," Trump's lawyers wrote.
The move came after a New York appeals court earlier Tuesday denied Trump's request to delay the Jan. 10 sentencing.
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony 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.
In asking the Supreme Court to intervene, Trump has presented the court with an unprecedented situation of a former president -- whose appointment of three justices cemented the court's conservative majority -- asking the country's highest court to effectively toss his criminal conviction less than two weeks ahead of his inauguration.
Trump asked the Supreme Court to consider whether he is entitled to a stay of the proceedings during his appeal; whether presidential immunity prevents the use of evidence related to official acts; and whether a president-elect is entitled to the same immunity as a sitting president.
If adopted by the justices, Trump's argument about immunity for a president-elect could expand the breadth of presidential authority, temporarily providing a private citizen with the absolute immunity reserved for a sitting president.
In a 6-3 decision last year, the Supreme Court broadened the limits of presidential immunity, finding that a former president is presumptively immune from criminal liability for any official acts and absolutely immune related to his core duties. The decision not only expanded the limits of presidential power but also upended the criminal cases faced by Trump.
Despite that favorable opinion, Trump faces uncertainty in convincing the justices to halt his sentencing. The Supreme Court does not typically take on random interlocutory appeals, even by a president-elect.
Trump's lawyers also argued that the former president's conviction relied on evidence of official acts, including his social media posts as president and testimony from his close White House advisers. The New York judge in the case, Juan Merchan, ruled that Trump's conviction related "entirely to unofficial conduct" and "poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch."
"This appeal will ultimately result in the dismissal of the District Attorney's politically motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning, centered around the wrongful actions and false claims of a disgraced, disbarred serial-liar former attorney, violated President Trump's due process rights, and had no merit," Trump's filing to the Supreme Court said.
GREGG COUNTY — A former Longview ISD employee was sentenced for the abuse against special education students at J.L Everhart Elementary. According to our news partner KETK, Cynthia Denise Talley was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for seven counts of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury and one count of unlawful restraint of a minor. Talley is one of six women arrested in 2022 after Longview ISD officials reportedly saw video footage of employees and campus administration mistreating special education students.
The other former J.L. Everhart employees also charged for mistreatment of students are Paula Hawkins Dixon, Cassandra Renee James, Linda Kaye Brown Lister, Priscilla Johnson and Cecilia Gregg.
Gregg, Dixon and Talley were âreleased from employmentâ from the district in October 2021â immediately upon the districtâs discovery of their alleged actions,â according to a statement from the district. Continue reading Former Longview ISD employee sentenced to prison
(WASHINGTON) -- World Wresting Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon has been getting high marks from her meetings with the Republican senators who could decide whether she'll be the next secretary of education.
McMahon has run a large government organization before -- she led the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019 in President-elect Donald Trump's first term -- but critics say she has little professional education experience beyond earning a teaching certificate from East Carolina University.
Since then, McMahon has primarily focused her time as a WWE executive, serving on the boards of colleges and state education agencies, and as chair of the board for think tank America First Policy Institute.
McMahon allies suggest her business experience will not only disrupt but also help reshape a federal agency that's long been criticized by Republicans. As a confidant to the president-elect who co-chaired his transition, McMahon is uniquely positioned to carry out his promises to close the education department, restore power to parents, and inject choice in schools, they say.
"Linda McMahon is a win for parents and will root out radical ideology and get DEI out of America's education system," Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote in a post on X after their meeting on Tuesday.
McMahon said she will carry out Trumpâs platform if confirmed by the Senate. When asked if she would dismantle the Department of Education like Trump campaigned on in her new role, she told ABC News, âIf I am secretary of education, I will certainly fall in with what the president's policy is.â However, it would take 60 votes in the Senate to dissolve the department, which is highly unlikely with just a 53-47 Republican majority.
The slim majority may not be enough to create immediate changes at the department, but senators who talked to ABC News expect her to be the departmentâs next leader.
What are senators saying?
Ultimately, McMahonâs nomination rests with the 100 senators who will vote on whether to confirm Trump's Cabinet picks. The Senate hasnât yet formally set a date for a confirmation hearing for McMahon, but she told ABC News she is looking forward to it.
Like Trumpâs most vulnerable Cabinet nominees, McMahon has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill in advise and consent meetings with everyone from newly elected Senate Majority Leader John Thune to freshman Republican Sen. Jim Banks. The GOP senators McMahon has met with have signaled a smooth process ahead.
âShe's awesome,â Oklahoma GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin told ABC News. âI'm looking forward to getting her over to be the secretary of education. She's going to do the reform that needs to be done there.â
Mullin added, âI think she's going to get through pretty easy. She's really good.â
McMahon first met with Mullin and most of his colleagues on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). This committee is expected to hold hearings for the nominees to lead the departments of Education, Labor and Health. Mullin explained that he and McMahon discussed reforming Washington, not outright dismantling agencies such as the DOE.
âI think all these federal agencies need to have a hard look at,â Mullin said. âThe American people were very clear about that in the election, they gave President Trump and they gave the Republicans a mandate that they want the government to start working for them and not working for a party.â
McMahon and her team have been marching through the Senate halls for weeks. The meetings typically last between 30 to 45 minutes. After his meeting, HELP Sen. Tommy Tuberville said he and McMahon âspeak the same languageâ on education issues.
Tuberville, R-Ala., also stressed that McMahon is the right leader to execute Trumpâs goal of closing the education department, arguing states already have their own departments of education so Washington doesnât need one.
âI've seen the downgrade of our curriculum, of the discipline, you know, between the students and the parents and the teachers,â Tuberville said. âWe need to be more of a family when it comes to education, instead of an individual agency. We need to make it more personal, and I think that she'll have a great opportunity to do that. She knows a lot about it.â
Tuberville is one of five current or former GOP members on the HELP committee who told ABC News the closed-door meetings with McMahon have been going âgreat.â McMahon has not told ABC News if her meetings will include Democrats.
HELP Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told ABC News she wants to see full vetting of Trumpâs nominees including FBI background checks. Baldwin said she hopes McMahon is going to be a âgood stewardâ of the education department and looks forward to reviewing her case to be its next secretary.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., struck a different tone condemning Trumpâs nominees.
â[McMahon] definitely wouldn't be my first choice or my second choice, or third choice, or fourth choice, or fifth choice, or sixth or seventh,â Fetterman said, then added, âBut I forgot they won, so, they can pick these kinds of things.â
(SEOUL, South Korea) -- Seoul Western District Court on Tuesday night reissued a warrant to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The Corruption Investigation Office chief, Oh Dong-woon, said during a parliament hearing that they would âthoroughly prepare for the execution of arrest, as if it was the last chance.â
The effort to detain Yoon came after a South Korean court issued an arrest and search warrant on Dec. 31 over his short-lived imposition of martial law, ABC News confirmed. Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14.
Yoon's attorney told reporters Wednesday that he is still at his residence and is greatly disappointed to hear rumors saying he had fled. Opposition lawmakers had spread those rumors, the attorney said.
To prepare for another arrest attempt, the President's Secret Service heightened surveillance near the Presidential residence, adding more chains to the barbed wire fence and blocking vehicles.
Yoon's lawyer said he still strongly believes that the CIOâs execution of the arrest warrant is illegitimate, as the CIO lacks the authority to investigate insurrection. He also pointed out that the Seoul Western District Court, which reissued the arrest warrant, has no jurisdiction. Nevertheless, he told reporters, the impeached president would stand trial if he were to be indicted.
Thousands had gathering on Sunday, a day before another arrest warrant for Yoon expired, near impeached the presidential residence
Protesters from both sides -- one calling the warrant invalid or illegal and the other shouting for arrest -- have occupied the wide four-lane road in a normally quiet neighborhood, blocking all traffic, in freezing temperatures and snow.
Yoon declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country's liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.
Animosity has been sky-high between the two sides, after over 100 investigators from the CIO anti-corruption agency and the police retreated from the residence after a tense standoff with the presidential security service.
Yoon's die-hard supporters have been camping on the street vowing to protect him from "pro-North Korean forces about to steal away the presidency." Anti-Yoon protesters who are backing of the opposition party claim that Yoon must be jailed for insurrection.
ABC News' Joohee Cho and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
Human Bird Flu Cases in the U.S. as of January 6, 2025. Image by ABC News. Data via CDC.
(NEW YORK) -- In the nearly nine months since the first human case of bird flu was detected in the United States, the virus has continued to spread.
The outbreak infected hundreds of herds and millions of birds before it spread to humans. As of Jan. 6, there have been 66 human cases of bird flu reported in 10 states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Almost all confirmed cases involve direct contact with infected cattle or infected livestock.
On Tuesday, the first death of a human bird flu patient was reported in Louisiana. The patient was over the age of 65 and had underlying medical conditions, according to health officials.
The CDC says there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission and the risk to the general public is low.
However, public health experts say they are worried the virus could mutate and become more transmissible, amplifying the need to ramp up testing and to stockpile vaccines.
Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases specialist at Duke University, said the fact that cases have yet to pass from human to human is "both reassuring, but not completely reassuring."
He told ABC News, "What we're concerned about is that, eventually, we might get a variation of this strain that could pass from person to person. That's really what we're going to need to see, I think, to get substantial human cases and the potential for a new pandemic strain."
He added, "So, in terms of peering into the crystal ball for 2025âŠI think the concern is whether or not we're going to see something change that will turn it into a pandemic strain that could then really be a problem," he added.
Fears of mutation or a combination virus
One fear experts have is that the virus will continue to mutate in a way that will cause more human-to-human transmissibility. The experts say that every new human case of bird flu allows the virus an opportunity to mutate.
Recent CDC data found mutations in samples of bird flu collected from the Louisiana patient. What's more, the mutations were not found in poultry samples collected on the patient's property, suggesting the changes appeared after the patient became infected.
Moody said that because the virus has not yet mutated in a way to spread more easily between humans, he's not sure if or when it will happen.
"Given the number of cows that have been infected, the number of birds that have been infected and the fact that the virus essentially mutates every time it replicates, I'm kind of surprised that the mutations that they're talking about haven't happened yet," he said. "So, I actually think there's a bigger barrier to it becoming a real problem."
Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said he believes there is a more likely scenario of the virus becoming more transmissible: an individual getting infected with bird flu and seasonal influenza at the same time.
He said this could lead to the virus "reassorting" to produce a hybrid, or recombinant, virus that could then transmit more easily from person to person.
"Everyone's focusing on the potential for mutation; that is a serious concern for some," he told ABC News. "The greater probability is that there could be a reassortment, what could ignite the pandemic or an epidemic."
The experts say there is no evidence the virus is currently heading towards an epidemic or pandemic, but there has already been one case of severe disease.
Different genotypes, or genetic makeup of the virus, means there could more severe cases.
"What we've seen with [bird flu] in the United States is that the particular genotype that's associated with dairy cows has primarily caused more mild disease in people," Dr. Meghan Davis, an associate professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.
"What we've seen with the case in Louisiana ⊠is caused by a different genotype, one that has been circulating in the wild birds, and these are much more severe cases," she continued. "This highlights the ability of avian influenzas to cause a wide variety of disease ⊠and I think it is possible that we're going to see that moving forward."
Making testing more available
The U.S. has begun ramping up testing with the U.S. Department of Agriculture issuing a federal order for raw milk samples nationwide to be collected and tested and the Food and Drug Administration announcing it is collecting samples of aged raw cow's milk cheese to be tested.
However, for 2025, Hotez said he believes testing needs to be made more readily available to physicians, especially during flu season.
He said there are likely cases of bird flu going undiagnosed, and testing made more available in health care settings would catch those flying under the radar.
"I think one of the problems that we have, especially as we move into influenza season, there's the risk that, if you're a physician, if they want to do influenza testing, they're only really testing for the usual seasonal influenza, they're not testing for [bird flu]," he said. "Otherwise, we're never going to fully know the actual extent of the problem."
Stockpiling bird flu vaccines
In early July, the U.S. government awarded Moderna $176 million to develop and test a bird flu vaccine using mRNA technology, which is the same technology used for the COVID vaccine.
In October, federal health officials announced they were providing $72 million to vaccine manufacturers to help ensure currently available bird flu vaccines are ready to use, if needed.
There are currently no recommendations for anyone in the U.S. to be vaccinated against bird flu, but experts say that could change if the virus becomes more transmissible.
Moody said clinical trials for new vaccines are being conducted and there are already bird flu vaccines in a stockpile maintained by the U.S. government that have previously been licensed by the FDA.
However, these three vaccines were formulated to protect against older strains of bird flu so there are questions about their protectiveness.
"One of the difficulties in making a stockpile is you're trying to predict the future. Picking which influenza is going to be a problem is always the difficult bit," Moody said. "So, I think that those vaccines that are in the stockpile, based on the data that I've seen, have a pretty good chance of being helpful. Whether or not they'll be the answer that's a that's a tougher question to address."
He said the U.S. is in a better position currently to address bird flu if it becomes an epidemic or pandemic than the country was to address COVID in 2020.
"We know how to do this. We know how to make these vaccines. We know how to get everything rolled out, and so I think we are in a better position today," Moody said.
SMITH COUNTYâ A Tyler woman was arrested Wednesday morning arrested after allegedly shooting at deputies and setting a trailer on fire while she was in it.
