Category: News

Courtesy of Thomas Built Buses BY: LEIGHTON SCHNEIDER, ABC NEWS (NEW YORK) — Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools has announced a contract to replace its diesel buses with electric ones, starting with 326 electric buses over the next four years. It marks the single largest purchase of electric school buses in North America, according to the release announcing the deal. The county school board, which is located northwest of Washington D.C and operates more than 200 schools, approved the deal with Highland Electric Transportation, a Massachusetts-based start-up that delivers electric…

katifcam/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News (HOLTVILLE, Calif.) — Authorities have begun to identify the victims of a deadly car crash that happened earlier this week in California, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The incident was one of the deadliest border crashes on record and it’s believed to be linked to a migrant smuggling operation. The collision occurred Tuesday morning on California State Route 115 at an intersection near the city of Holtville, about 125 miles east of San Diego and about 10 miles from the country’s border with Mexico.…

Oleksandr Filon/iStockBy MARLENE LENTHANG, ABC News (JACKSON, Miss.) — Water is slowly returning to homes in Jackson, Mississippi, but a boil water order remains for the city’s more than 160,000 residents, officials announced. The city is still struggling to restore water after the state was ravaged by winter storms three weeks ago. The storms crippled the city’s water treatment plants due to freezing temperatures and led water pressure to drop when the plants went unused for so long. On Thursday, city officials offered a message of hope, announcing the city’s…

Michael Anthony/iStockBy EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News (HOUSTON) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is opening up about his decision to end the state mask mandate, stressing that he still urges residents to take precautions, but Texans “no longer need government running our lives.” On March 10, Texas’ mask order will end and businesses can reopen at full capacity, Abbott announced Tuesday. In a Thursday interview with ABC Houston station KTRK, Abbott said the decision “was a product of the data that we have seen.” Thursday marked the lowest positivity rate and…

ABC NewsBy MAX GOLEMBO, ABC News (NEW YORK) — Winter is back for the Northeast. Upstate New York and New England are seeing below zero-degree wind chills Friday morning, as the I-95 corridor is seeing wind chills in the teens and single digits. Winds have been gusty Friday morning, blowing at more than 40 mph. The chilly weather will linger through the weekend for the Northeast, but a nice warm-up is expected by the middle of next week. Meanwhile in the West, a winter storm brought snow to parts of…

jose1983/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News (NEW YORK) — Authorities believe they have found the body of a Kentucky man who disappeared at the Grand Canyon last week. John Pennington, 40, of Walton, Kentucky, was thought to have entered the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona on or around Feb. 23, abandoning his vehicle at the South Rim near Yaki Point. He was believed to be traveling alone, possibly on a yellow 2005 Suzuki motorcycle, according to the National Park Service. After days of searching the area, National Park Service personnel…

Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBy HALEY YAMADA, ABC News (NEW YORK) — Bill Magness, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, was fired on Wednesday in the wake of February’s deadly blackouts that left millions without electricity and heat in freezing temperatures. As power grid manager, Magness was given a 60-day termination notice by the company’s board of directors. He has not released a statement yet on his termination, but he informed the board that he will not seek or accept severance pay, according to an updated employment…

Goddard_Photography/iStockBy MARK OSBORNE, ABC News (SAN DIEGO) — The San Diego Zoo announced on Thursday it was in the process of inoculating many of its great apes after several of its gorillas became sick with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in January. So far, four orangutans and five bonobos are in the process of being vaccinated, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. The zoo would only say “some of the members of the great apes” were being vaccinated. Zoetis, a producer of medicine and vaccinations for animals, provided the…

ABC Photo IllustrationBy NAM CHO and CATHERINE THORBECKE, ABC News (NEW YORK) — A barrage of attacks on Asian Americans, reported to be fueled in part by biases pertaining to the coronavirus pandemic, have filled communities around the country with fear and rage. But they have also exposed old wounds as advocates implore their fellow Americans to see and hear what they call a long-standing plight of invisibility. “Our people are getting attacked, our people are getting harassed, spat on, beat up, you know, slashed,” Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY, told…

ABC NewsBy ASHLEY RIGGLE, MARJORIE MCAFFEE, and ANTHONY RIVAS, ABC News (LOS ANGELES) — As Los Angeles edges out of the most restrictive tier in its covid-19 reopening plan, small business owners who’ve struggled to stay afloat say that whatever hope it brings is mixed with feelings of frustration and anger. For many of the small business owners, the past year has been defined by sacrifice and heartbreak, and the constant concern that their business could go under as they try to keep up with the latest requirements. Jared “JP”…