Year: 2017

Milenius/iStock/Thinkstock(SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico) -- Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said Wednesday that Hurricane Maria is "probably the single biggest hurricane catastrophe in the history of the U.S.”Maria battered the island after it made landfall as a powerful category 4 storm last week, leaving residents there with dwindling supplies of drinking water and without power and cellphone service.Rosselló continued his calls for action from Congress in the wake of the […]

recep-bg/iStock/Thinkstock(WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla.) -- The mother of a 6-year-old Florida boy who took a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance on Monday morning criticized the way the school handled the incident.Eugenia McDowell told ABC News that her son knelt down during the daily pledge to the flag at Wiregrass Elementary School in Wesley Chapel, Florida. The incident occurred after a weekend of demonstrations across the NFL in which many players, […]

WPLG(MIAMI) -- Three people died when scaffolding collapsed at a television tower in Miami on Wednesday, ABC affiliate WPLG in Miami reported.The 1,250-foot tower transmits the signal for the ABC affiliate as well as WSVN, another local station, WPLG reported. WPLG assistant chief engineer Steve Ellis said the workers were removing gear at the top of the tower to install an upgraded transmission antenna for another station when the accident […]

guido72/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- With two months to go in one of the busiest hurricane seasons in recent memory, the National Weather Service is facing a different kind of problem: a shortage of meteorologists.The NWS had 216 unfilled positions going into the season, according to a new document obtained by the Sierra Club through a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with ABC News. About 100 of those positions were […]

JaysonPhotography/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A 15-year-old boy is dead and a 16-year-old boy is in critical but stable condition after they were both stabbed in the chest, allegedly by a fellow student in the middle of class at their New York City school on Wednesday morning, police said.The 18-year-old suspect was taken into custody and is being interviewed after the deadly incident in the Bronx building, which houses the Urban Assembly […]

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The FBI has about 1,000 open investigations into potential domestic terrorists, including people who may be linked to extremist white supremacy, white nationalism and environmental movements, the agency's new chief, Christopher Wray, told Congress Wednesday.During his first testimony as FBI director, Wray said domestic terrorism is “a very, very serious” matter that the investigative agency spends “a lot of our time focused on.”"We have about 1,000 open domestic-terrorism […]

Courtesy Jada Hermann(KELLOGG, Minn.) -- The Kellogg Fire Department in Minnesota experienced a baby boom this year when six of its 30 firefighters welcomed seven babies over the span of five months.“We don't know if there was something in the water or what,” volunteer firefighter Ben VanLoon told ABC News. “It was like, 'Whoa, another one! Whoa, another one!'”The fire department's baby boom kicked off with his daughter, Brielle, who […]

Glowimages/Getty Images(BOSTON) -- A US college graduate who began working undercover to infiltrate al-Qaeda cells at the age of 16 made his first public appearance as a witness in a court in Boston this week.The young man, now 25, is a central witness in the federal case against David Wright, who is on trial on charges of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State. Wright, 28, exchanged online […]

Columbia Daily Herald(NEW YORK) -- Elizabeth Thomas, the Tennessee teenager allegedly kidnapped by her former teacher, said she doesn't regret leaving town with him in her first interview since being rescued."I don’t regret it, nor do I say it was the right thing to do," Elizabeth Thomas told the Columbia Daily Herald over five months after she was found. "It was an experience I'll have to live with the rest […]