Year: 2017

ABC News(MIAMI) -- ABC News reporters helped assure a worried daughter that her family in Puerto Rico is safe after she could not reach them in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Miami resident Tere Blanca sent ABC News reporters a video message Friday saying she was desperate to hear from her family in Ponce, on the island's southern coast. In the video, she said she had not been able to […]

iStock/Thinkstock(COLUMBIA, Tenn.) -- All hostages have been released after a man entered a bank in Columbia, Tennessee, armed with a machete Friday afternoon, according to police. The 54-year-old man initially took nine people hostage at the Community First Bank & Trust before releasing four people, a spokesperson for the Columbia Police Department said. Hours later, the remaining five hostages were released, said Columbia Police Capt. Jeremy Alsup. No one was […]

YakobchukOlena/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The authority tasked with regulating the nation's aviation industry is facing a partial shutdown as its authorization to do so expires next Saturday.To avoid such a shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, Congress must pass either an extension of the old piece of legislation or pass an entirely new bill.But how did we get here? What does it mean? Would air travel come to a halt? ABC News […]

aradaphotography/iStock/Thinkstock(RIVER OAKS, Texas) -- Using an iPad, Valerie McDaniel started an audio diary to record her deepest thoughts. In her entries, the 48-year-old talked about her daughter, her dating adventures as a new divorcee -- and a dark secret.“I hate the idea that everybody thinks I’m a monster,” McDaniel says in the recording she made on March 15, 2017.And in her last recording made on March 25, McDaniel says, “I […]

HsinJuHSU/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Following months of controversy, the Education Department said on Thursday it would end Obama-era guidance on campus sexual assaults.In a "dear colleague" letter, released in 2011, the Obama administration instructed schools to use a "preponderance of evidence" standard, rather than the more stringent "clear and convincing evidence standard, to prove sexual assault.But the Trump administration argues using a lower standard of proof in sexual misconduct cases "suggests […]

ABC News(SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico) -- In Puerto Rico, nursing home caregiver Maria Ortiz is trying desperately to get ahead of the suffering her patients may face if she doesn't get aid and supplies quickly for them."We can't let them die. We can't let them die. And we need all the help we can get," said Ortiz as she stood in line for water. "We need help. We need diesel […]

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A pair of sinkholes have opened up in a central Florida neighborhood after hurricane Irma hit the state earlier this month.Tuesday morning, a huge sinkhole swallowed part of a home in Apopka, Florida, a city 18 miles northwest of Orlando.Luckily, the residents, Ellen and Garry Miller, were not injured in that sinkhole."We made it through the hurricane. We were really, really lucky, and then this," Miller told […]