On Thursday, the individual accused of impersonating an abductor in the Nancy Guthrie case confessed in a Tucson, Arizona federal court to tormenting her family by demanding a fictitious ransom payment.

Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, disappeared early on February 1 from her home in the Catalina Foothills area. The following day, local media outlets received ransom notes—however, their legitimacy remains under investigation.

Derrick Anthony Callella, a 42-year-old Hawthorne, California resident, sent these messages, which the FBI swiftly identified as fabrications. Callella was apprehended just days following the assumed abduction and faced charges related to online harassment.

As noted by Tucson-based KVOA-TV, Callella is anticipated to be sentenced to five years of federal probation during an upcoming court session.

He was accused of contacting Guthrie’s other daughter, Annie Guthrie, and son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, from a spoofed phone number on Feb. 4 and asking, “Did you get the bitcoin were [sic] waiting on our end for the transaction.” He also allegedly placed a nine-second call to the family afterward.

“Through the course of the investigation, it was found that Callella was acting as an imposter, trying to take advantage of the ongoing situation,” federal prosecutors said in a statement after the suspect’s first court appearance in mid-February.

According to court documents, investigators have not linked him to a Feb. 2 ransom demand sent to local media and TMZ. They did, however, allegedly link the spoofed number to a Google email account in Callella’s name.

After being read his Miranda rights, Callella allegedly confessed to sending two messages, saying he had found the family’s contact information online and had been following news coverage of the case, according to the criminal complaint.

Then-FBI Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Heith Janke told reporters about the arrest in a February news briefing but said the FBI was investigating a different ransom demand as potentially having come from the actual abductor.

Callella had been freed on $20,000 after his arrest and was not allowed to apply for a passport.

Savannah Guthrie and her siblings previously responded to two other ransom demands, that she said back in March she believes could be legitimate.

The identity of whoever sent them remains a mystery, however, and no arrests have been made.

“The FBI and its task force partners have received several ransom notes over the course of this investigation,” the FBI’s Phoenix office said in a statement on Wednesday. “Some have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy. Other ransom demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such. This case continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case.”

The FBI is assisting in the investigation, the statement added, noting that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department remains the lead agency on the case.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, however, has repeatedly stated that the FBI is leading ransom-related investigations.

“Any questions regarding alleged ransom notes should be directed to the FBI,” he said in a statement of his own. “We appreciate the public’s continued cooperation and the information provided throughout this investigation. Anyone with information that may assist investigators is encouraged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit an anonymous tip to 88-CRIME.”

On Thursday, the sheriff’s department deferred comment on Callella’s plea to the FBI. The feds did not immediately respond.

On Thursday, a grand jury indicted David Hearn, a former US Olympian, following his arrest in Washington, DC. He was apprehended at the Reflecting Pool for allegedly dipping into its waters.

The 62-year-old athlete faced arrest last month after being accused of damaging the fresh paint job at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. This renovation had been a point of pride for President Donald Trump.

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, Hearn’s legal representative mentioned they had not received any updates beyond a prior misdemeanor citation that had been issued to Hearn.

President Trump, reacting to the incidents of vandalism, warned of severe legal consequences for anyone found damaging the pool, following substantial renovations.

On Truth Social, the President criticized those he termed as liberal vandals for the harm done to the upgraded pool. The newly painted ‘American flag blue’ finish had started to peel from the base.

‘Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail,’ he wrote.  

Hearn previously told the Daily Mail his arrest and the charges were a farce intended to boost a false narrative as he shared an image of the pool’s damaged facade. 

‘It’s a completely unfounded accusation. It’s a lie,’ Hearn said over the phone. ‘I didn’t rip, tear, destruct, destroy, or harm in any way, any part of the reflecting pool.’ 

Hearn admitted to touching a ‘loose flap of coating,’ but claimed he did so purely because he was ‘curious as a concerned citizen.’ 

President Trump championed the $16 million renovation as part of his goal to beautify Washington, DC, ahead of America’s 250th anniversary. 

But less than two weeks after the project was completed, the newly refinished paint job began peeling, and algae blooms turned the water green. Trump admitted over the weekend that the pool may need to be drained for repairs. 

‘They clearly wanted a news story that they could promote that was centered around vandals damaging the reflecting pool,’ Hearn said, adamant that he did nothing wrong. 

‘Officers were ready to arrest me and other people they found who they could have some contrived basis of charges on to accuse them of vandalism,’ Hearn said. 

The Olympian had also shared a photo he had taken of the peeling paint moments before his arrest. 

Video of Hearn’s arrest shows the Olympian standing by the Reflecting Pool with his bike before getting approached by two National Guard soldiers. The video then shows him walking over to four police officers and a third National Guard soldier.

A fifth officer dressed in a white shirt – identified by Hearn as Lieutenant Stone – can then be seen talking to the Olympian, whose hands were cuffed behind his back. Hearn said Stone ‘seemed to be the driving force behind the arrest.’ 

In a statement to the Daily Mail, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers replied to Hearn’s claims and said: ‘It is despicable that after attempting to vandalize a national monument, this deranged individual suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome would disparage the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect the public and our nation’s capital.’ 

Trump later went on a longer screed against the vandals, accusing them of using ‘corrosive and destructive’ chemicals to ruin the pool.

‘Many additional people have been arrested having to do with the disgraceful Vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool,’ he said, claiming they were ruining a monument that ‘hasn’t looked or worked like this since 1922.’ 

Trump added that he needed to speak to contractors, who promised to fix the problem but said they will ‘probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to do the necessary repairs.’

He accused the vandals of using knives to stab a ‘250 foot long gash’ into the pool, while also pouring ‘corrosive and destructive chemicals’ into it.   

‘We are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of Beauty,’ he said. 

However, just weeks after the triumphant announcement, the water in the Reflecting Pool turned a stomach-churning lime green. 

Crews were seen dumping hydrogen peroxide into the water to curb algal growth. 

The Department of the Interior, which is overseeing the project, said in a statement to media outlets that ‘nanobubbler technology’ had been installed to address the buildup of algae. 

‘Unlike under Obama and Biden, the National Park Service is actually maintaining the beautifully completed Reflecting Pool,’ a spokesperson for the department said in a statement to the Daily Mail.

‘To keep the water in the Reflecting Pool not only crystal clear but also clean, we are deploying high-tech nanobubble ozone technology.’

The department added that the technology kills algae, pathogens and contaminants that have long plagued the pool. 

The Trump administration then blamed former President Barack Obama for failing to keep up with renovations. 

The DOI confirmed that hydrogen peroxide was being used to treat the pool, but claimed there were no harmful side effects to the environment or marine life. 

The administration paid over $1.7 million to Green Water Solutions LLC last April for a ‘nano bubble,’ according to government spending files. 

Nanobubblers are microscopic gas bubbles. They suspend in water, increasing dissolved oxygen levels and altering the water chemistry. 

The gas bubbles damage algae cells and break them apart, preventing the water from turning green.

Nanobubbler technology has been tested and validated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Ohio State University and University of Florida, the DOI said. 

The Reflecting Pool has plagued previous administrations, as algae buildup has frequently prevented the water from properly reflecting the memorial as designed. 

The Obama administration poured over $35 million into a repair job, only for the green hue to return within a month. 

Trump has taken a stab at the project, initially projecting that renovations would cost $2 million and take a week to complete.

The project ended up costing $14 million and took two months to complete. Atlantic Industrial Coating received a no-bid contract after the administration bypassed bureaucratic procedures, the New York Times reported.

Trump said he personally picked the company after they worked on a pool at his Virginia golf club, however, he later said he did not know the contractor. 

When asked about the Times reporting, a spokesperson for the DOI told the Daily Mail: ‘The company selected was the only company that had the expertise, staff, and materials necessary to complete the project in time for major celebrations ahead of our 250th.’

Atlantic clarified in a statement to the Daily Mail that they were awarded the contract after they were recommended by the selected product supplier.  

‘We have never done work for President Trump, his companies, or anyone affiliated with him,’ a spokesperson for the company stated. 

‘We did line the pool with polyurea, not paint. We have nothing to do with the water, we were solely contracted to line the pool, thus making it water tight, to stop the leaks.’ 

The spokesperson added that the initial price for lining the pool was $13.1 million and two other product suppliers presented proposals.  

The White House directed all inquiries to the DOI when asked about the contract with the company.  

Earlier this month, the White House shared photos of the Reflecting Pool looking clear and blue.

‘The water is ON, the Reflecting Pool is reflecting, and DC is looking better than ever,’ the administration said.

However, just a few days later, the algae already started popping up again. A spokesperson for the DOI told CNN at the time that the algae was ‘residual.’ 

‘It’s part of the normal startup process. We are removing the algae, and the nanobubblers will maintain the pool and keep it algae free,’ they added. 

Individuals familiar with the project told the Times that they worried the renovation did not address buried pipes that often leaked. 

Trump has faced criticism ​for speeding past planning ​processes meant to preserve ⁠Washington’s carefully designed appearances in his renovation program, criticism that his administration has dismissed as partisan sniping while praising the real estate developer’s ​design acumen.

Lawmakers have also raised questions about his decision to accept a $400 ​million airplane from ⁠Qatar to be put into service as Air Force One, which ferries the president, his staff and security detail and journalists on his travels around the nation and the world. 

Security experts ⁠have ​warned that retrofitting the plane would require extensive security upgrades, ​communications improvements to prevent eavesdropping and missile-defense capabilities, all of which would take time and money to install.

Trump’s other plans for beautifying Washington include tearing down the ​East Wing of the White House to make space for a new ballroom ⁠and building a massive arch near Arlington National Cemetery, which honors the nation’s war ​dead and other prominent Americans.

The Daily Mail reached out to David Hearn and his attorney, Norm Eisen for comment. 

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, ABC is unveiling a unique program dubbed “Disney Celebrates America,” offering 24 hours of engaging content.

This multi-platform event, anchored by ABC News’ “World News Tonight” host David Muir, will broadcast from all 50 states. The coverage kicks off at 7 p.m. PT on July 3, spanning into July 4.

Viewers will be guided through America’s 7 Wonders and various cities, as ABC News anchors and correspondents showcase the country’s remarkable landscapes, rich culture, and defining historical moments, complemented by festivities, performances, and interviews with prominent figures.

ABC30 is partaking in this momentous event by guiding viewers nationally through Yosemite National Park, with special segments hosted by Action News Anchor Vanessa Vasconcelos.

Featuring stunning scenery, majestic granite cliffs, and cascading waterfalls, Yosemite National Park has long been a muse for artists. Renowned nature photographer Marc Bouldoukian describes this breathtaking environment as a living classroom.

Yosemite National Park visitors can experience a taste of history at The Ahwahnee, where chefs have reimagined a menu discovered in 1929 and now serve it as a prix fixe meal.

From the roar of rushing water to the whisper of grass rustling in the breeze, immersing yourself in the sights and sounds of Yosemite is awe-inspiring.

In Dallas–Fort Worth, TX, the apartment construction boom over the past few years has effectively lowered rental prices by 2.9% compared to the previous year, as stated by Realtor.com.

However, a recent study indicates that easing the financial burden on the city’s most rent-strapped residents could still take a staggering 474 years.

This timeframe is nearly triple the 169-year estimate for a similar relief in the New York City metropolitan area.

Meanwhile, rents in the Big Apple have climbed over 6% in the last year.

These surprising insights are derived from the newly launched Housing Affordability Toolkit by the National Multifamily Housing Council and NYU Urban Lab, an initiative aimed at assisting urban areas in tackling the nation’s challenges with rental housing affordability.

The contrast is not an argument that New York City has solved its housing crisis—it clearly has not.

But it gets at a piece of the affordability debate that often gets lost inside bigger conversations about rent growth and housing supply: whether the homes being built can ever reach renters whose incomes are too low to support market rent.

In the words of Caitlin Sugrue Walter, NMHC’s senior vice president of research and innovation, “The data make clear that the rental affordability crisis is not one problem—it’s several, each requiring its own set of tools.”

Or, as the examples of Dallas and New York City show, a city can build enough apartments to bring asking rents down without solving the housing crisis for those most in need of relief.

The oxymoron of ‘affordable housing’

The report points to several issues holding back the development of affordable rental housing, all of them rooted in the same problem: These projects are expensive to build, but often generate too little income to support themselves.

Consider a standard apartment development. A project is generally deemed viable when the rent it can collect is high enough to cover acquisition, construction, financing, and operating costs.

Add more of those units, and renters have more options, which slows rent growth and, eventually, pulls asking rents down—that’s essentially the thesis that Dallas has proved works.

But deeply affordable housing starts with a different equation.

These projects often operate under restricted rent structures, which can leave net operating income too low for the deal to pencil out on its own.

Less income means less debt the project can support, and that difference has to be filled through tax credits, public capital, below-market loans, tax abatements, project-based rental assistance, vouchers, and operating subsidies—each solution more onerous, time-consuming, and costly than the last.

One analysis suggests that these types of projects can be as much as twice as expensive to build as a typical market-rate project due to the added costs of closing the financing gap.

Another gives these projects the dubious description of “Affordable Housing Is an Oxymoron.”

However you slice it, the cost reality for developers has depressed the supply of these units.

The report estimates that subsidized affordable homes account for about 14.3% of occupied rental housing nationwide, while even high-production years have produced fewer than 200,000 new subsidized units.

Despite those barriers, there is no shortage of need.

“The numbers are too big to spin,” Matthew Kwatinetz, clinical associate professor at NYU SPS Schack, director of the NYU Urban Lab, and Toolkit author, said. There are “22.4 million rent-burdened households, 10.1 million households that can’t even afford to pay utility costs.”

Why New York City has a shorter clock

For his part, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has put those renters at the center of his housing plan—even as the city faces its own century-and-a-half timeline to close the affordable housing gap.

That commitment was on display this week, when Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin reached a last-minute budget agreement that included a new $175 million rental-assistance program for New Yorkers at risk of eviction or homelessness.

“We accelerated the affordability agenda by investing in housing, mental health services, parks, libraries, and students of all ages,” Mamdani said in announcing the deal. “This agreement proves that fiscal responsibility and public excellence can go hand in hand.”

His broader Block by Block plan makes the same premise explicit, while also highlighting the infrastructure required to move these apartments from idea to reality: a robust subsidy system, a large public-housing authority, rental assistance, tax abatements, and preservation programs that can keep lower-cost homes from disappearing.

But the toolkit suggests New York City’s affordability problems are bigger than any one program can address.

In that sense, New York City is the near mirror image of Dallas.

The city has more of the machinery needed to close the gap, but it is trying to make that machinery work in one of the country’s most expensive and constrained housing markets.

The problem is bigger than Dallas and New York City

New York City is far from alone. Perhaps the most striking part of the toolkit’s metro rankings is how widely the timelines vary by city—and how often fast-growing, lower-cost markets still fall into the same century-plus category as the Big Apple.

Only 13 metros in the ranking could close their affordable housing gaps in less than a century at their current pace.

Every other metro in the report’s ranking faces an estimated wait of at least 100 years.

In rapidly growing markets such as Phoenix, Miami, Jacksonville, FL, Orlando, FL, and Houston, those timelines stretch from more than two centuries to more than five.

The report also found that 38 of the country’s 50 largest metros had average two-bedroom rents above their affordability threshold and failed the test for new naturally occurring affordable housing.

In other words, many cities are not only failing to add enough subsidized housing—they also are no longer producing much unsubsidized housing that lower-income renters can realistically afford.

It’s a clear illustration of how the timeline to address those needs is shaped by far more than rents alone: the size of the rent-burdened population, the pace of subsidized-housing production, development costs, and whether local governments have systems in place to preserve older low-cost homes, layer subsidies, and make new projects feasible.

What happens when there is nowhere cheaper to go?

The case for closing this gap extends beyond the fact that the most cost-burdened renters need a place to live.

Pressure at the bottom of the market pushes upward, raising the cost and competition for everyone relying on the next cheapest apartment.

The toolkit breaks this powder keg of demand as follows: Of the country’s 22.4 million rent-burdened households, about 4.3 million households could benefit from more market-rate supply, 10.1 million more have incomes too low for the private market to serve on its own and are subsidy-dependent, and roughly 8 million more households fall somewhere in between—too burdened for the market as it exists, but not necessarily served by deep subsidy.

When cities fail to build or preserve homes, these households compete for the same older, lower-cost apartments that moderate-income renters also rely on.

And that supply is already shrinking: The report notes that the U.S. lost more than 500,000 low-rent units between 2019 and 2022, or more than 150,000 a year—more than the average annual production of new Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program rental homes during that period.

Adding to the tumultuous landscape, an anti-Israel protester recently admitted to manslaughter in connection with the tragic death of a pro-Israel demonstrator. This week, the perpetrator was handed a sentence of one year in county jail.

The defendant, Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, aged 53, was involved in a 2023 altercation with Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old activist. The confrontation saw Alnaji hit Kessler in the head with a megaphone, causing Kessler to fall back and sustain a fatal head injury. He later succumbed to these injuries in the hospital.

This tragic encounter unfolded amid escalating tensions linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict and a noticeable rise in antisemitic sentiments in the United States and globally. Originally, Alnaji faced the possibility of a four-year prison sentence. However, his decision to plead guilty in May led to a reduced sentence.

Despite the guilty plea, prosecutors have expressed dissatisfaction with the sentence, arguing that a one-year term in county jail falls short of adequate punishment. They contend that Alnaji deserved a longer period of confinement in state prison, given the severity of the case.

“Mr. Kessler lost his life in a violent attack that took him from his family and his wife of 43 years,” Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said in a statement. “Given the circumstances of this case and the death that resulted, we believe a state prison commitment was the appropriate and just sentence.”

Kessler’s widow wrote a victim impact statement that said, in part, “There are no words to describe the pain of losing a husband in such a sudden and violent way.”

“The grief is relentless. The silence in our house, the absence of his voice, his companionship, his love and the future we had planned together are losses I carry with me every day,” she continued, according to the district attorney’s office.

Jonathan Oswaks, a friend of Kessler’s who was at the rally with him when the incident took place, spoke to the Jewish Journal when news of Alnaji’s expected sentence was released, calling it “deeply frustrating.”

“I’m not a lawyer, but the way this was handled raises serious questions for me. It sends a troubling message about accountability,” he told the outlet.

Oswaks recounted moments from the event in his interview with the outlet, noting how the pro-Palestinian protesters vastly outnumbered them that day. He said after the pair had split up, people began approaching him and stood inches from his face yelling into his ear and using a megaphone.

“When I tell you I had never experienced that level of hate in my life, I hadn’t,” he said. “I told them to get out of my space. They backed off briefly, then started again. I made it clear they needed to stay away, and eventually they did.”

In an astonishing twist of fate, an Arizona toddler surfaced alive in a hospital morgue nearly five hours after being mistakenly pronounced dead by a doctor, a shocking report reveals.

The 18-month-old child, whose identity remains undisclosed, was found in a family’s swimming pool in Gilbert around 5:30 p.m. on February 8. Following the harrowing discovery, he was promptly rushed to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center.

Upon his arrival at the hospital, the young boy was declared deceased. However, in an unexpected turn of events, medical personnel returned to the morgue five and a half hours later to discover that he was, in fact, alive.

Initial accounts of this extraordinary occurrence suggested it was miraculous, yet according to a critical police report obtained by ABC15, the heart-stopping error was the result of a doctor’s grave misjudgment.

Accompanying the findings, heavily blurred bodycam footage from police captured the dramatic sequence as officers and paramedics responded to the scene, hastily transporting the toddler to the hospital on that unforgettable day.

Once they arrived, a police officer recalled in the report that he heard a nurse state: ‘I have a pulse’, leading him to alert the doctor handling the case, records stated. 

But when he did so, the male physician, who has not been named, appeared to brush off his concern, the cop wrote in his report. 

‘[The doctor] arrogantly told me he was the doctor, he has the medical degree, he went to medical school for a reason, and to let him do his thing,’ the officer documented, per the report.

The audio, which was heard in some of the footage, captured what appeared to be the moment the officer and doctor interacted just before the child was declared dead by the medical professional. 

‘I went to medical school for a reason,’ the physician stated. 

The cop then appeared to respond, but the doctor cut him off, stating: ‘Ok, let me just clarify. Thank you.’ 

Shortly after their conversation, the doctor officially declared the toddler dead, records showed. 

But officers continued to detail the signs of life they saw in the child in the report. 

‘The release of the air was audible and visible,’ a cop wrote. 

They later added: ‘It also began to sound like [redacted] was gasping for air,’ the report stated. 

When medical staff went to move the little boy’s body to the morgue, a female officer recalled that she ‘observed what appeared to be another audible gasp’ coming from the child, the outlet stated. 

Then, when she entered the morgue, the cop said: ‘I again observed what appeared to be a gasp or air release, which was now almost an hour later.’ 

But a nurse who was there said the alleged breathing sounds could have been a response to efforts to save the child, the report said. 

Audio related to that moment was redacted from the released report. 

The child was declared dead ‘in error’ by the Mercy Gilbert doctor, the report said. 

The end of the footage showed the moment an officer told the child’s family the heartbreaking news that it was time to say goodbye. 

But when the child was found alive and breathing hours on, he was flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for treatment. 

He suffered severe brain damage and will now need lifelong care, according to MRI results, ABC15 reported. 

A spokesperson with Mercy Gilbert Medical Center told the Daily Mail: ‘This is a heartbreaking situation. We immediately conducted a thorough review of all aspects of the care provided to learn what happened and to make meaningful changes to strengthen our care.

‘Out of respect for the patient’s privacy, we cannot discuss details. We continue to work with the family and their representative. Patient safety and exceptional care is our highest priority.’ 

HILL CITY, Kansas/CHICAGO/NEW YORK — This Wednesday, sweltering record temperatures have extended from the Midwest to the eastern United States. These heat warnings could affect millions through the July 4 holiday weekend, coinciding with America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

Forecasters predict that the intense heat will drive “real-feel” temperatures to range between 100 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 to 46.1 degrees Celsius) in many areas. This surge poses a heightened risk of heat-related illnesses among vulnerable groups and may strain power grids already under pressure from increased demands by data centers and electric vehicle usage.

In the small high plains town of Hill City, Kansas, situated 270 miles east of Denver, Sabrina Hooper faces the challenge of working as a mail carrier amidst these extreme temperatures, having just started the job a week ago.

“The heat is absolutely crippling,” shared Hooper, 34, who spends her days traversing up to 10 miles to deliver parcels. Fortunately, she finds some respite from sprinklers: “It’s delightful. I can remove my hat, let it soak, and put it back on.”

Back in 2012, Hill City held the title of the hottest location in the U.S. for five consecutive days during another extreme heatwave, with heat indexes soaring to a blistering 108 degrees.

The heat index measures ​how it feels when humidity is factored into the air temperature.

Dana Robles, who lives in Brownsville, Texas, a city just off the Gulf Coast at the US-Mexico border, worried on Wednesday about the mounting costs ​of cooling her home as the heat index rose to 108 degrees. During peak temperatures, her family’s monthly power bill can exceed $300, which is nearly one-third what they pay for rent.

Robles also fears blackouts due to the overtaxed power grid.

“I’m scared the electricity is going to go off all day and our food is going to get spoiled,” she said.

In Chicago, high-school science teacher Michelle Klein, 57, had started preparing for the heat over the weekend. She filled ​her car with gas, did her weekly grocery shopping early, stocked the refrigerator with extra cold drinks and gave her plants a deep soak.

“The basil was being a diva and needed another drink of water this ​morning,” Klein said on Tuesday evening after going on her usual evening walk despite the 103-degree heat index.

In the city’s suburbs, property investor Amy Kaspar got an urgent call Monday night from a tenant whose air conditioner ‌was only ⁠blowing out warm air.

Kaspar discovered that the appliance was working fine – it simply could not keep up with cooling the tenant’s unit, given the intense heat and humidity.

“Combined with the wind, it feels like standing behind the exhaust of a bus right now in Chicago,” said Kaspar, 50.

Cooling centers and check-ins

Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications urged residents on Wednesday to periodically check in with relatives, neighbors, seniors and other vulnerable populations. If contact cannot be made, the office said, Chicagoans can request a well-being check from the city by calling 311.

The scorching US temperatures mirrored those in western Europe, which recently has been engulfed ​in its own record-breaking heatwave, an event scientists said ​would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate ⁠change.

Scientists have confirmed through years of studies that greenhouse gas emissions are making heatwaves around the world both more likely and intense.

The extreme heat only began creeping into New York City as of Wednesday morning, by which point the city had opened hundreds of cooling centers and deployed more ​than a dozen “cool vans” equipped with water, electrolytes, sunscreen and meals for New Yorkers in need of relief, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a ​press conference.

Air conditioning was on ⁠full blast at a senior center in Harlem on Wednesday, where a sign in 13 languages advertised the space as a “cooling center” for the public.

The senior center’s director, Richard Allman, said it would remain open beyond its usual hours over the July 4 weekend.

“We try to make this a comfortable place for people on an extra-hot day,” he said.

Ahead of the heatwave, city leaders had asked operators of signs in ⁠the city’s iconic ​Times Square to reduce the brightness of their billboards to lower energy consumption, and requested that businesses set thermostats no lower ​than 78 degrees.

The city’s energy provider, Con Edison, urged customers to limit energy use from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The city has also extended public pool hours, opened additional cooling centers in libraries and municipal buildings, and expanded street outreach ​efforts.

Florida’s Attorney General, James Uthmeier, alongside several local legislators, is attempting to impeach a judge following his controversial acquittal of a woman through an unprecedented COVID-related insanity defense.

Circuit Judge Miguel de la O, sitting in Miami-Dade, acquitted Precious Bland, who faced charges of manslaughter and attempted murder after allegedly drowning her young daughter and attacking her husband and another child with a knife.

Defense attorneys for Bland argued that she had a psychotic episode triggered by COVID-19, rendering her incapable of comprehending her actions. Their case centered on claims that Bland experienced hallucinations and felt compelled to ‘baptize’ her family, believing it was a divine instruction.

According to a police report accessed by News Media, during the incident in 2021, Bland was reportedly shouting proclamations that “Jesus Christ is coming, and COVID will end us all,” as stated by her husband to the authorities.

“The defendant insisted that everyone needed to be baptized and that she was going to baptize everyone in the bathtub,” the report read.

The police report details a harrowing scene where Bland instructed one of the children in the home to retrieve a knife, but the child claimed to not know why.

Bland then allegedly stabbed her husband several times during a struggle, and he “along with his four other children, ran out of the residence in fear for their lives and he contacted the police,” the report read.

Bland’s older daughter, in an attempt to grab the baby away from the defendant, “sustained a stab wound to her forearm during the struggle,” the report continued.

The girl “then ran out of the residence in fear for her life. Officers arrived on the scene, made entry into the residence, and placed the defendant into custody,” the report said.

Officers located the baby “face down, unresponsive, inside the bathtub filled with bloody water,” according to the report.

De la O sided with the defense, acquitting Bland on all three counts and allowing her to return to her home ahead of a future hearing to decide on her treatment options. Uthmeier called the judge’s decision unacceptable.

“In a bench trial — where the judge made the decision, not a jury — he allowed a woman off on an insanity defense after she drowned her baby. He cited insanity related to COVID. This is unacceptable,” Uthmeier told News Media in an interview.

“I believe we have impeachment provisions in our state constitutions for a reason. The federal government has similar authorities, but we don’t see judges getting impeached in modern times. So, I believe this is wrong. We’re going to be pushing hard to work with our legislature to hold some of these judges accountable. I believe they’re violating their oath and endangering our citizens,” Uthmeier told News Media.

Uthmeier also revealed that he was exploring impeachment options for a number of other judges as well, disclosing to News Media that he was working with other Florida legislators on the matter.

“I’ve already had some Florida legislators reach out, excited to work with me on articles of impeachment, and hopefully get some of these dangerous people off the bench,” he told News Media.

“We have taken a big interest in judges that we believe are exceeding their authority, abusing discretion, or acting in a way that jeopardizes public safety. We’ve already called for impeachments in a couple of other judicial cases: a judge in Tallahassee who let a convicted child predator go free — a guy where a jury found him guilty of a child sex offense, and he then murdered his five-year-old stepdaughter. There’s a case in Miami where a judge let the defendant out on bail after he shoved rocks in a girl’s mouth as she was being raped,” Uthmeier explained.

Bland’s attorney, Larry Handfield, said he believed the ruling was the first successful COVID-related insanity defense in the country.

“This was COVID,” Handfield told NBC6 South Florida.

“It’s a woman who served our country for five years,” he said, referring to Bland’s five years in the U.S. Navy.

Handfield said she was “living the American dream until COVID came. She didn’t ask for COVID.”

Uthmeier also said he believed this was one of, if not the, first ruling of its kind.

“I am not aware of this having happened before. I certainly have not read through all of the transcripts from the proceeding, but to me, anybody who drowns their daughter should not be released. To the extent that insanity is going to weigh in on things, I believe it should factor into where you are housed for your incarceration, not give you a ‘get out of jail free’ card where you’re just allowed to walk scot-free and put other people in danger. If somebody truly has serious mental defects where they need treatment or help in some way, so be it, but they should get that help behind a barred hospital — some sort of mental institution where they are confined and not able to go free and walk the streets again,” Uthmeier said.

The Florida attorney general also said he believed the ruling was part of a “national trend” of federal judges overstepping.

“I think all of us as leaders in this country need to wake up and realize that the impeachment and removal of judges is something under the Constitution that can be pursued. And until we do it — until we reject their abuse of authority — they’re going to continue to have credibility when they do these wayward things. So, I’m going to be pushing impeachment very often and loudly over the next year,” he concluded.

The court appointed forensic psychologist Dayra Bodan to determine whether or not Bland’s degree of insanity warranted involuntary hospitalization. Bland is slated to have another hearing on July 6 to determine treatment options.

News Media contacted Bland’s attorney but did not receive a response. The 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, where Judge de la O presides, told News Media “judicial ethics canons do not permit comment on pending cases.”