National News

Valerie Macon / AFP via Getty Images (LOS ANGELES) -- Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter filed a defamation suit Monday against an Alabama woman who claimed he raped her when she was 13 in a since-withdrawn civil lawsuit.Carter's lawsuit said the woman, identified as Jane Doe, timed her claim "to inflict maximum pain and suffering on Mr. Carter" to extort payments from him.The lawsuit also named the woman's attorneys, Tony Buzbee and […]

Rob Atherton via Getty Images (MIAMI) -- A couple was arrested after allegedly attempting to board an American Airlines flight without authorization, leading to a physical altercation in which one individual allegedly threw coffee on an airline staff member, police said.The incident occurred on Sunday at Miami International Airport as passengers were preparing to board American Airlines flight 2494 traveling from Miami to Cancún.Rafael Seirafe-Novaes and Beatriz Rapoport-De-Campos-Maia "ignored the […]

After a rash of wildfires broke out over the weekend, scorching thousands of acres in South and North Carolina, firefighters on Monday reported making significant progress in extinguishing the blazes that prompted mass evacuations and threatened numerous homes, officials said.At one point on Saturday and into Sunday, 175 wildfires erupted in South and North Carolina, fueled by high winds and extremely dry conditions, officials said. The fires prompted South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to […]

(SPARTA, Ga.) -- History tells us that the railroad helped put America on the right track, when trains started moving people and goods across the country in the 1800s. They were yesterday’s highways, making it possible to traverse the nation in four days instead of 30.This travel revolution is one of the reasons that it made sense to give railroads, which are still privately owned in most cases, some of […]

(SILETZ, Ore.) -- A massive search is underway for an Oregon toddler who was reported missing on Saturday afternoon, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department.Dane Paulsen, 2, was reported missing at approximately 4:25 p.m. Saturday and was last seen playing in the front yard of his family's Siletz, Oregon, home, "out of sight of his parents," the sheriff's department said in a statement on Sunday."We thank our community for sharing information and […]

ABC News Illustration (NEW ORLEANS) -- Parades on Mardi Gras day have been canceled due to the dangers posed by extreme winds that could reach 60 mph in the New Orleans area on Fat Tuesday."The range of where we consider it dangerous and we bring in our people is around 30 to 35 mph," Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, President Cynthia Lee Sheng said at a news conference Monday, noting that transit buses stop […]

E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images (HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) -- Highland Park, Illinois, mass shooting suspect Robert Crimo III changed his plea to guilty on Monday as opening arguments in his trial were set to begin, according to Chicago ABC station WLS.Crimo is accused of killing seven people and injuring dozens of others in the mass shooting at a 2022 Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb […]

ABC News Illustration (NEW YORK) -- A strengthening storm system will move across the country this week, bringing blizzard conditions to the Heartland and tornadoes and damaging winds to the South.On Monday, the storm is focused on the Rockies and the Southwest, bringing mountain snow from Southern California to Colorado.Meanwhile, there's an extreme fire danger in New Mexico and western Texas. The combination of gusty winds up to 65 mph […]

(LOS ANGELES) -- Late at night on Jan. 6, Los Angeles Emergency Management Department General Manager Carol Parks sent a text message wishing Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley a happy new year.“It's my first opportunity to send this Public Safety leadership text,” Parks wrote. “Wishing it could have been on a blue sky day, but duty now calls.”The following day, Los Angeles would witness the start of what […]