Sextortion bill becomes law in SC after lawmaker lost teen son to suicide in scam
ABC News’ Emmanuelle Saliba shares how the tragedy of one South Carolina lawmaker’s family led to a law banning sexual extortion scams of minors.
ABC News’ Emmanuelle Saliba shares how the tragedy of one South Carolina lawmaker’s family led to a law banning sexual extortion scams of minors.
Millions of dollars in unpaid school lunch debt have been mounting in districts across the country, and one Virginia mom is on a mission to settle the bill in her local community. Adelle Settle feels a student's ability to pay for their meal at the school cafeteria should never get in the way of their success. For years, Settle has been raising money for schools one call or social media post at a time, to help students in Virginia focus on their studies and not their stomachs.
A Florida woman appeared at her first court hearing after she was arrested in the shooting death of her neighbor, a mother of four, after an alleged dispute with the neighbor's children. Susan Lorincz, 58, who is white, appeared in court via video from the Marion County Jail where she is currently being housed, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office (MCSO). Lorincz admitted to calling children in the neighborhood the n-word and other derogatory terms in the past, according to a police report.
Former President Donald Trump said on an audio recording in 2021 that he had taken classified information with him to his Florida home after leaving the White House, ABC News has confirmed. Trump is heard on the audio recording saying, as described to ABC News, "As president I could have declassified, but now I can't." The recording, first reported Friday morning by CNN, was made as part of an interview Trump gave for a book and was obtained by the special counsel’s team.
Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, is heading to a federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday to face federal extortion and wire fraud charges. Van der Sloot, who is accused of trying to profit from his connection to the Holloway case, is scheduled to be arraigned at 11 a.m. CT. The Dutch citizen was handed over to the FBI on Thursday morning to be extradited from Peru, where he had been serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores.
Beware the fake listing. It's a scam that Morgan MacFarlane encountered when she booked an Airbnb room for a trip to Mexico. "When I got there, I started speaking with the manager who was working, who explained to me that it was $15 more U.S. a night, which I was like I've already paid, like I already have a booking," MacFarlane said.
Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris was at the Encore Hotel pool in Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend with his family when an unresponsive 3-year-old child was pulled from the water. Now, Morris, the doctor and Wyatt's family have reunited for the first time on "Good Morning America" to share their story and stress the importance of regular safety training. "It's truly a miracle when I try to wrap my mind around everything that happened," Kelseigh Stanley, Wyatt's mother, told "GMA."
Officials from the Transportation Security Administration in South Dakota stopped a passenger with a loaded handgun from getting onto a plane in the fourth such incident at the Sioux Falls Airport this year. During the routine screening of carry-on luggage this past Tuesday, a TSA officer at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport spotted a silhouette of a handgun on the X-ray screen, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement detailing the event on Tuesday. Airport officials immediately alerted the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office who responded to the airport’s security screening area and discovered that the firearm was loaded.
While the Northeast may be unfamiliar with hazy conditions caused by smoke from wildfires, which blew down from Canada, the West Coast is far more familiar. On the West Coast, wildfires are common, but over the past few years, they have become larger and more widespread, causing more damage. With Canada currently on track to potentially experience its worst wildlife season ever, meaning New York City and other areas, could see more smoky conditions over the next few months, there may be lessons to learn from how the West Coast handles large blazes.
Maggie Wells woke up on New Year’s Day last year with what she described as a “bone-chilling” thought. The 34-year-old mother of three weighed more than 300 pounds and refused, for the most part, to be in any family photographs. "I just woke up on New Year’s Day and that was the first thought that struck me immediately," she said.
Authorities are looking for two people after they allegedly approached and harassed a bison calf at a national park in Wyoming. The incident occurred in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming at approximately 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 4, when two individuals were seen “approaching and touching a bison calf at the southern end of Elk Ranch Flats in Grand Teton National Park,” read a statement from the National Park Service describing the encounter. Park rangers are now asking the public for help with their investigation and anyone with any information on the alleged individuals involved with the bison encounter is asked to contact park authorities immediately.
An 18-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly trying to raise money for ISIS through a gift card scheme on the dark web. Mateo Ventura, from Wakefield, Massachusetts, was arrested for “knowingly concealing the source of material support or resources that he intended to go to a foreign terrorist organization, namely the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS),” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts released on Thursday. Ventura allegedly provided multiple gift cards to an individual that he believed was an ISIS supporter with the intention that those gift cards subsequently be sold on the dark web for slightly less than their face value.
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted for a second time, this time on federal charges in relation to his handling of classified information while out of office, sources familiar confirm to ABC News. The former president faces at least seven charges, sources tell ABC News, which include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations. Maximum sentences for the respective charges, per their statutes, range from five up to 20 years, although any eventual sentence should Trump be convicted would likely be much lower.
There was a time when a former president facing a single criminal indictment was inconceivable, but now Donald Trump is facing a second indictment, this time on federal charges. It's a turn of events that could shake up the Republican primary field as Trump makes a third run for the White House. News of that letter surfaced after attorneys for Trump met with officials at the Department of Justice Monday, sources said.
President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled new initiatives to support LGBTQ Americans and called recent anti-trans efforts "thoroughly unjustified" and "ugly." Biden was set to host the White House's largest-ever Pride celebration but had to postpone due to the heavy smoke that inundated Washington, as well as other major U.S. cities, from raging Canadian wildfires. Instead, he discussed the initiatives during a press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when asked about his message to families who no longer feel safe amid increasing legislative onslaughts in Republican-led states.
Smoke from the record-breaking Canadian wildfires continues to blanket much of the Northeast and impact air quality. Smoke plumes made up of fine particles and toxic gases can negatively impact on our physical health, causing damage to the lungs and heart and exacerbating underlying conditions, such as asthma. "There are studies showing that there's increased levels of PTSD, depression and anxiety after wildfires," Dr. Gaurab Basu, a primary care physician and health equity fellow at Harvard's Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, told ABC News.
At his first campaign event since announcing his bid for the White House, former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday said the potential federal indictment of Donald Trump would be "extremely divisive" for the nation and that he hopes the Department of Justice only moves forward with "unprecedented" charges if they are certain in their case. "I think it would send a terrible message to the wider world," Pence said. When asked if Trump, a candidate who is facing multiple criminal investigations -- while denying wrongdoing in each -- best represents the Republican Party, Pence said it was time for "new leadership."
As wildfire smoke bathed New York City in fumes on Wednesday afternoon, UPS driver Matt Leichenger said he suffered a wave of nausea in the back of his truck with hardly anything he could do about it. As of Thursday afternoon, the AQI registered at 178.
Tennis superstar Serena Williams showed off her pregnancy this week with new photos alongside her daughter Olympia, and a sentimental message from one of her favorite bands. "So take the photographs and still frames in your mind," Williams wrote in the caption of an Instagram post on Wednesday, quoting Green Day's hit song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" in the caption. The known Green Day super fan -- who has routinely requested songs at the band's concerts, according to Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong himself -- and her 5-year-old posed for the photo positioned between weeping pine trees, with a Green Day hat atop one of the branches.
For wheelchair users, taking a trip that involves flying can often be an undignified hassle. Oftentimes at the gate, people who use power wheelchairs are lifted out of their seats into narrow wheelchairs designed specifically for airplane aisles, while their wheelchairs go in the cargo hold. In many instances, the wheelchairs are damaged in transit.
As many as 18 states issued air quality alerts across the country this week, stretching from Michigan to South Carolina and ranging from unhealthy to hazardous levels of concern due to smoke spreading from wildfires in Canada. Kids are one group at highest risk for serious health effects, especially those with underlying health conditions like asthma and allergies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, smoke pollution from wildfires carries a specific type of health hazard called fine particulate matter, or PM2.5.