National

Lord Runar/iStockBy BILL HUTCHISON, ABC News(LOS ANGELES) -- Nearly 11,000 lightning strikes over 72 hours ignited hundreds of fires across California that have roared through wildland, destroyed homes and forced thousands to evacuate.The historic lightning siege left firefighters scrambling from one end of the state to the other and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who declared a statewide emergency, calling for extra personnel and equipment to battle the conflagrations from the ground […]

ABC NewsBy Seni Tienabeso, Lindsey Griswold, and Anthony Rivas, ABC News(NEW YORK) -- By his account, Elie Kirkland shouldn't have been at Morehouse College's commencement last year, when billionaire Robert Smith pledged to the class of 2019 to "put a little fuel in your bus" by paying off millions of dollars in their student loans.Kirkland was one of 396 graduating from the historically black college. The senior was supposed to […]

Sullivan County Sheriff's OfficeBy IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News(SULLIVAN COUNTY, Tenn.) -- Megan Boswell has been charged with murder in the death of her 15-month-old daughter, Evelyn, who was reported missing in February and found dead more than two weeks later.After a five-month investigation into Evelyn's death, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday alleged Boswell, 19, killed her child and disposed of her body. A […]

LightFieldStudios/iStockBy LUKE BARR, ABC News(CHICAGO) -- When Jonathan Zumkehr woke up Thursday morning with mild symptoms of COVID-19, he said he figured he should get tested for the virus.Later that day he found out he was COVID-19 positive, he said, making him the 20th staff member to test positive at the United States Penitentiary Thomson just outside of Chicago, Illinois.But Zumkehr, like his colleagues, did not get tested at work, […]

Jennifer McLeggan talks to reporters in front of her home in in Valley Stream, N.Y., where she says she was the target of racial harassment from neighbors. - (WABC)By BILL HUTCHINSON, ABC News(NEW YORK) -- When numerous complaints made to police failed to stop the alleged harassment from several of her white neighbors, Jennifer McLeggan, a single Black mother, posted a large handwritten sign on the front door of her […]

imaginima/iStockBy EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Survivors of rapes committed by Joseph DeAngelo, the man now known as the "Golden State Killer," made their voices heard in victim impact statements in court Wednesday.One survivor, who was raped in 1978 at the age of 23, addressed DeAngelo directly, telling him, "You will not defeat me, you will not break me."She said she had loved to waterski since she was 3 […]

Ovidiu Dugulan/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News(NEW YORK) -- A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 781,000 people worldwide.Over 22 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, […]

narvikk/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, MATT ZARRELL and MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News(NEW YORK) -- A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 779,000 people worldwide.Over 22 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher […]

ABC NewsBy MAX GOLEMBO, ABC News(NEW YORK) -- More wildfires have exploded in the West, particularly in California, due to numerous lightning strikes.At least 26 wildfire complexes are burning in California and some of these fire complexes contain several smaller fires. Here is the latest on the recent fires in California: The LNU Lightning Complex fire in Sonoma and Napa Counties is 32,025 acres and 0% contained. Three structures have […]