Author: ABC News

Three members of the Nelons, a Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame quartet, were among seven people killed in a plane crash in Wyoming, according to a statement by a group member who was not aboard the aircraft.The Nelons co-founder, Kelly Nelon Clark, her husband Jason Clark, and their daughter, Amber Nelon Kistler died in the crash Friday afternoon, according to a statement from daughter Autumn Nelon Streetman.“Thank you for the prayers that have been extended already to me, my husband, Jamie, and our soon-to-be-born baby boy, as well as Jason’s parents, Dan and Linda Clark,” Nelon Streetman said. “We appreciate your continued prayers, love and support as we navigate the coming days.”Also killed in the crash were Nelon Kistler’s husband, Nathan Kistler, family friend Melodi Hodges, and Larry and Melissa Haynie, according to Nelon Streetman.There were no survivors.The group was traveling to join the Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alaska, according to a statement from Gaither Music Group, the sponsor of the cruise that features numerous gospel singers and groups.Gaither Music said Hodges was an assistant for the band. Larry Haynie was pilot of the aircraft, and Melissa Haynie was his wife. The aircraft was identified as a single engine turboprop Pilatus PC-12/47E.The crash occurred about 1 p.m. in Campbell County, Wyoming, north of Gillette and about 250 miles (402 kilometers) north of Cheyenne, according to a statement from Campbell County spokesperson Leslie Perkins.The National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson Keith Holloway said Saturday that a team of investigators is expected at the site later Saturday.“The aircraft is in a remote location and once they gain access, they will begin documenting the scene, examining the aircraft,” Holloway said. “The aircraft will then be recovered and taken to a secure facility for further evaluation.”A preliminary report on the crash is expected in about 30 days while a final report with the probable cause of the crash could take up to two years to complete, Holloway said.The Nelons were inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 2016 and were winners of 10 GMA Dove Awards, including multiple song of the year and album of the year awards.

GILLETTE, Wyo. — A plane crash in a remote area of northeastern Wyoming caused an unspecified number of fatalities and sparked a wildfire, authorities said Friday.The plane crashed at about 1 p.m. north of the town of Gillette near the Wyoming state line, Campbell County officials said in a social media post. The number of fatalities was not immediately released.A distress signal was sent out by the plane before the crash, Campbell County Undersheriff Quentin Reynolds told the Gillette News Record. Callers later reported seeing smoke columns rising into the air near the suspected crash site, he said.The wildfire that resulted from the crash was being suppressed using aircraft, heavy equipment and engine crews, officials said.The National Transportation Safety Board was dispatching a team to investigate, local officials said.Federal investigators were not yet on the scene of the remote crash site as of Friday evening, NTSB spokesperson Keith Holloway said. More information was expected to be released Saturday.A spokesperson for Campbell County could not be reached immediately for further comment.

DETROIT — Two U.S. senators are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate automakers selling customers’ driving data to brokers who package it and then sell it to insurance companies.In a letter to FTC Chairwoman Linda Khan, Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Edward Markey of Massachusetts allege that General Motors, Hyundai, Honda and perhaps others are sharing drivers’ data, such as sudden braking and acceleration. The automakers, the senators said in a statement Friday, used deceptive tactics to manipulate customers into signing up for disclosure of the data to brokers. After reading a report in The New York Times, Wyden’s office looked into the three automakers and found that they shared data with broker Verisk Analytics. In the letter to Khan, the senators wrote that all three automakers confirmed disclosure of the data. GM also confirmed that it disclosed customer location data to two other companies that the automaker would not name, the letter said.Verisk used the data to prepare reports on driving-behavior history and sold them to insurance companies, the letter said. Some automakers may have deceived customers by advertising data disclosures as a way to reduce insurance bills, without telling them that some insurers could charge more, the senators wrote.“If the FTC determines that these companies violated the law, we urge you to hold the companies and their senior executives accountable,” the senators wrote to Khan.GM wouldn’t say how many cars’ data was sent to brokers or what it was paid, according to the letter. Wyden’s office found that Hyundai shared data from 1.7 million vehicles and was paid just over $1 million, while Honda got just under $26,000 for data from 97,000 vehicles, the senators said.A message was left Friday after business hours seeking comment from the FTC.In an email, GM denied that it deceived customers into enrolling in the data-sharing program with Verisk. Data-sharing partnerships with Verisk and LexisNexis were canceled in March, and its data-sharing program called “Smart Driver” ended in June, GM said.“Data was only shared with an insurer if a customer initiated a quote directly with their chosen carrier and provided a separate consent to that carrier,” the email said.The company said it does share “de-identified” data with partners to aid city infrastructure and make roads safer.In a statement, Hyundai said the senators’ letter mischaracterizes its data policies and that it has safeguards to make sure customers agree to sharing driving information with insurers.Customers, it said, had the option to connect driving scores to their insurers through Verisk for possible benefits such as good-driving discounts. “It is important to note that Verisk was not authorized by Hyundai or the customer to share the Drive Score data with insurers until the customer affirmatively consented to this on an insurer’s website or app,” Hyundai said.Honda also said that customers had to opt into the program with Verisk. Some customers with good driving scores were given the chance to agree to discount offers from insurers. “Without that clear second opt-in by the customer, no identifiable consumer information was shared with any insurance company,” Honda said.Verisk also disagreed with Wyden and Markey and said in a statement that it “acts to ensure data is accessed and used appropriately.” The company said using data responsibly “is the cornerstone of our business.”

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska law that combined abortion restrictions with another measure to limit gender-affirming health care for minors does not violate a state constitutional amendment requiring bills to stick to a single subject, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday.The state’s high court acknowledged in its ruling that abortion and gender-affirming care “are distinct types of medical care,” but the law does not violate Nebraska’s single-subject rule because both abortion and transgender health fall under the subject of medical care.The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union representing Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. The high court rejected arguments by ACLU attorneys which argued the hybrid law passed last year violates Nebraska’s single subject rule.Republican lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature had originally proposed separate bills: An abortion ban at about six weeks of pregnancy and a bill restricting gender-affirming treatment for minors. The GOP-dominated Legislature added a 12-week abortion ban to the existing gender-affirming care bill only after the six-week ban failed to defeat a filibuster.The combination law was the Nebraska Legislature’s most controversial in the 2023 session, and its gender-affirming care restrictions triggered an epic filibuster in which a handful of lawmakers sought to block every bill for the duration of that session — even ones they supported — in an effort to stymie it.A district judge dismissed the lawsuit last August, and the ACLU appealed.In arguments before the high court in March, an attorney for the state insisted the combined abortion- and transgender-care measures did not violate the state’s single subject rule, because both fall under the subject of health care.But an attorney for Planned Parenthood argued that the Legislature recognized abortion and transgender care as separate subjects by introducing them as separate bills at the beginning of last year’s session.“It pushed them together only when it was constrained to do so,” ACLU attorney Matt Segal argued.At least 25 states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states face lawsuits. Federal judges have struck down the bans in Arkansas and Florida as unconstitutional. Judges’ orders are in place temporarily blocking enforcement of the ban in Montana and aspects of the ban in Georgia.Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, ending a nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have started enforcing new bans or restrictions and most Democrat-dominated ones have sought to protect abortion access.

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — A 3-year-old Minnesota boy who was attacked by two pit bulls last week is not expected to survive, his family said.The parents of Covil Allen are preparing their son to be an organ donor, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Friday. An online campaign is raising funds to help Covil’s parents cope with expenses related to the July 19 attack in the backyard of a home.A search warrant obtained by WCCO-TV said Covil’s family was at a home in Brooklyn Park where dogs were being sold. Police said they believed that the child’s parents were there to buy a dog.When the dogs began to attack Covil, adults “started to defend the 3-year-old by using hammers and pick axes to get the dogs off,” according to the warrant.Police officers arrived and saw the dogs attacking the child and shot both animals, police said. One dog was killed and the other was taken to a veterinary hospital and euthanized.The fundraising posting said Covil’s mother also was bitten, on the leg, and has had several surgeries.Police said an investigation continues into the attack on Covil and another dog bite incident on Tuesday, when a 7-year-old girl was attacked by a loose dog. She was not badly hurt. Officers killed the dog when it then tried to attack a boy, police said.Brooklyn Park police Inspector Elliot Faust said larger conversations are underway with city leaders and elected officials about dog attacks.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation measure remained low last month, bolstering evidence that price pressures are steadily cooling and setting the stage for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates this fall. Prices rose just 0.1% from May to June, the Commerce Department said Friday, up from the previous month’s unchanged reading. Compared with a year earlier, inflation declined to 2.5% from 2.6%. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 0.2% from May to June, up from the previous month’s 0.1%. Measured from one year earlier, core prices increased 2.6%, unchanged from June. Taken as a whole, Friday’s figures suggest that the worst streak of inflation in four decades, which peaked two years ago, is nearing an end. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that this summer’s cooling price data has strengthened his confidence that inflation is returning sustainably to the central bank’s target level of 2%.Lower interest rates and weaker inflation, along with a still-solid job market, could also brighten Americans’ assessment of the economy and influence this year’s presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Yet with the pace of hiring cooling and the economy growing at a steady, if not robust, pace, it’s considered a near-certainty that the Fed will cut its benchmark interest rate when it meets in mid-September. The central bank will first meet next week. But Powell is expected to say afterward that the Fed’s policymakers still want to see additional data to be sure that inflation is slowing consistently.After soaring to 7% in 2022, according to the measure released Friday, inflation has fallen steadily for the past year. Even so, the costs of everyday necessities like groceries, gasoline and rent remain much higher than they were three years ago — a fact that has soured many voters on the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the economy. Inflation is cooling even as the economy keeps steadily expanding. On Thursday, the government reported that the U.S. economy grew at a healthy 2.8% annual rate in the April-June quarter, with consumers and businesses spending at a solid pace. That was up from just a 1.4% annual growth rate in the first three months of the year. Businesses are still adding jobs, though most of the hiring in recent months has been concentrated in just two sectors of the economy: health care and government. The unemployment rate has edged up to a still-low 4.1%, after the longest stretch below 4% in a half-century.

MELVINDALE, Mich. — A 44-year-old man has been charged with murder in the death of a Detroit-area police officer who was shot while responding to a call about a suspicious person near a car wash.Michael Lopez was arraigned Thursday, the Wayne County prosecutor’s office said in a release.Lopez faces other charges that include being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and drug possession. Court records did not list an attorney Thursday for Lopez.Lopez was ordered Thursday to reman in jail. An Aug. 12 probable cause hearing has been scheduled. Officer Mohamed Said was shot Sunda y afternoon in Melvindale, southwest of Detroit.Lopez allegedly ran after a traffic stop by Said, according to the prosecutor’s office. Said was shot while chasing Lopez who was arrested Monday evening in Southwest Detroit.Michigan Department of Corrections records show that Lopez was paroled on June 22. He previously served 12 years for carjacking and assaulting an officer in 2011.Said, 23, had been a Melvindale officer for only 14 months. He was the third Michigan police officer killed in the line of duty in less than a month.“Policing is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet,” Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. “The alleged facts in this case will show that this defendant callously gunned down and killed 23-year-old Officer Mohamed Said, who was just doing his job and had just begun his career in law enforcement. Tragic does not even begin to describe that happened here.”