Tag Archives: air travel

Snow bears down on Northeast; record warmth to follow

A pair of disturbances taking shape in the south-central U.S. will come together during the day Saturday and accelerate toward the Northeast bringing a quick hit of snow to major I-95 cities from Philadelphia to Boston.

Winter storm warnings have been issued for parts of New Jersey through southern Massachusetts, including Manhattan and the Bronx. Coastal areas, such as Staten Island, Brooklyn, parts of Queens, Long Island and Cape Cod have a winter storm watch due to the uncertainty of how much warm air will inhibit snowfall accumulation.

ABC News
Storm alerts are in place for much of the Northeast ahead of Saturday’s snow storm.

The storm begins to take shape later Saturday with snow arriving into parts of the Northeast in the early evening hours. The Rapid Precision Mesoscale (RPM) forecast model is currently showing snow falling in Philadelphia and New York City as early as 5 to 7 p.m. The storm is moving quickly though, with only about six to 10 hours of accumulating snowfall expected.

Right now, the highest uncertainty is along the coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts. The storm is currently forecast to track close to shore and keep those areas too warm to see rapidly accumulating snow.

ABC News
The snow will move into the New York City area at about 7 p.m. on Saturday night.

By sunrise on Sunday, the storm is already moving offshore, with only a few snow showers remaining in parts of New England.

ABC News
The snow will only remain in eastern New England by Sunday morning.

The current snowfall forecast for much of the I-95 corridor area from Philadelphia to Boston is generally 2 to 5 inches of snow. North and west of the major cities have the best chance for the exceeding and meeting the higher end of that snowfall range. Areas southeast of the major cities will see the lower end of that range.

Ultimately, the snowfall accumulation will be determined by the exact track of the storm, relatively warm ground temperatures and near-freezing temperatures. If the storm nudges just a little closer to the coast than the present forecast, the snow will not accumulate in the I-95 corridor. If the storm nudges just a little south and east, the heftier snows could accumulate in New York City, as well as many coastal regions.

ABC News
Snowfall will be heaviest north of New York City and northeast through Connecticut into western Massachusetts.

Warm weather on the way

Whatever snow does fall will not be sticking around. Temperatures are going to quickly warm up this week across the eastern U.S.

ABC News
The weather will quickly warm up by Monday in the Northeast following the weekend storm.

On Tuesday, daily records are possible across much of the eastern U.S. with many locations all the way into the mid-Atlantic reaching 70 degrees or higher.

ABC News
Records could fall along the East Coast as temperatures continue to rise on Tuesday.

Northwest also seeing snow

A potent winter storm is also currently heading into the Northwest. It will bring heavy rain along the Northwest coast, and heavy snow to the hills and mountains of the northwest and northern Rockies.

In Washington, winds up to 50 mph or higher are expected Saturday. Heavy mountain snow, including the mountain passes in the Cascades, are expected through Sunday. Totals will range up to 3 feet in some parts of Washington by Sunday afternoon.

The storm will bring a swath of snow to the northern Rockies. Blizzard like conditions are expected in parts of Idaho and Monday by Saturday night and Sunday.

ABC News
Heavy snowfall totals are likely across the Northwest throughout much of the inland regions.

Some of the snow also will break off and head toward the Northern Plains, including Rapid City, South Dakota, and Duluth, Minnesota. The potential for snow will bring potentially dangerous travel on Sunday from Wyoming to Minnesota.

Kelly Orders Overhaul to White House Security Clearance After Abuse Claims

In a statement released Friday, Abbe D. Lowell, Mr. Kushner’s lawyer, declined to say whether his client would still have a security clearance, saying only that “the new policy announced by Mr. Kelly will not affect Mr. Kushner’s ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the president.”

It was unclear Friday night how Mr. Kushner could do his job without a security clearance, though Mr. Trump, as president, might be able to overrule Mr. Kelly’s process and grant Mr. Kushner the access that he needs. It is also possible that Mr. Kushner’s background review did not begin until after June 1, which could allow him to retain a temporary clearance.

Mr. Kelly’s memo, which was released publicly after Mr. Trump left Washington for a weekend in Palm Beach, Fla., acknowledges that mistakes and shortcomings were exposed by the handling of marital abuse allegations against one of President Trump’s top aides.

“We should — and, in the future, must — do better,” Mr. Kelly wrote in a document addressed to senior White House officials and copied to the directors of the country’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The Washington Post first reported the existence of the memo.

In it, Mr. Kelly did not directly address the case of the aide, Rob Porter, who was forced out of his job as the White House staff secretary this month after news reports that his two former wives had claimed physical and emotional abuse by Mr. Porter during their marriages.

The White House has been reeling for more than a week amid shifting explanations of how Mr. Porter was allowed to remain in one of the most sensitive posts there despite the F.B.I.’s discovery months ago of the abuse allegations.

The deepening scandal called into question the administration’s veracity as Republicans and Democrats pressured Mr. Kelly to detail what had happened. The memo does not do that.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

But Mr. Kelly’s pledge of action comes after bipartisan pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have in recent days demanded that the White House account for Mr. Porter’s case and the broader issue of people without permanent security clearances working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

“The committee is investigating the policies and processes by which interim security clearances are investigated and adjudicated within the executive branch,” Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote this week.

Mr. Kelly said that he was putting into effect changes that would address a failure of communication between the F.B.I. and senior officials in the West Wing — exactly the kind of failure that White House officials have said was responsible in Mr. Porter’s case.

Among the most significant changes, Mr. Kelly ordered that F.B.I. officials would now directly report to the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, any concerns that they uncovered during the background investigations of the president’s top aides.

Mr. Kelly said that would ensure that “critical material will be differentiated from the ordinary volume of communications and delivered quickly and directly to the appropriate person rather than through layers of intermediaries.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, had suggested this week that if changes were necessary in the background check process, it was the responsibility of the F.B.I. to make them.

“If changes are thought to be made, that would be made by the law enforcement and intel communities that run that process, not the White House,” Ms. Sanders said Monday.

Mr. Kelly’s memo noted that he met with F.B.I. officials during his review to discuss “their process and our process.” In testimony to lawmakers on Tuesday, Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director, said that he was “quite confident that in this particular instance, the F.B.I. followed established protocols.”

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

White House officials had earlier said that they were unaware of the allegations against Mr. Porter because the F.B.I. had reported their concerns to a security office staffed by career officials who did not communicate to the West Wing.

People familiar with the background check and security clearance process in prior administrations have said that such communication failures would not — and did not — occur previously because of procedures that were in place.

The changes that Mr. Kelly has ordered suggest that the process for reviewing background investigations and deciding about security clearances had all but broken down during the first year of the Trump administration.

He said that the White House should “develop and implement written protocols governing the review of security files,” suggesting that such written guidelines did not exist.

Mr. Kelly said that the F.B.I. should communicate “significant derogatory information” about a White House employee in 48 hours — an admission that it has taken much longer than that since Mr. Trump became president.

In the future, Mr. Kelly wrote, access to “certain highly classified information” will be kept from people with only interim security clearances unless they receive “explicit” approval from his office, and then only “in the most compelling circumstances.”

That is an admission that too much highly classified information has been shared with Trump administration officials in the White House who had not received permanent security clearances.

Mr. Kelly’s memo makes clear that the White House was aware of shortcomings and concerns with the granting of security clearances several months before Mr. Porter’s case became public this month.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

In September, Mr. Kelly wrote, he ended the practice of granting new interim security clearances without “extraordinary circumstances and my explicit approval.”

He also said that he conducted a review of all White House staff with security clearances, and in some cases reduced the level of clearances for employees who did not need access to classified materials or secret documents.

“I have insisted that we enforce the necessary safeguards and processes to review an individual’s suitability for employment at the White House before that individual begins work,” Mr. Kelly wrote.

Michael S. Schmidt contributed reporting.


Continue reading the main story

NJ weather update: What to expect from weekend snowstorm, when the snow will arrive

Forecasters say some snow could start falling Saturday afternoon, but it is more likely to start Saturday evening and get heavy at times Saturday night.

In many areas, the precipitation might start as rain and then change to snow, said Sarah Johnson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s regional office in New Jersey. As the storm progresses, and warmer air pushes in, the snow will likely mix with sleet and rain in coastal areas and in South Jersey, keeping snowfall accumulations low in those areas.

Most of the precipitation should fall between Saturday evening and the pre-dawn hours on Sunday, and snowfall rates could get close to 1 inch per hour in the heaviest bands, Johnson said. As of now, forecasters are not certain where the heaviest bands will set up, but they are confident it will be a fast-moving storm.

By 5 or 6 a.m. Sunday, the snow and rain should be over, with temperatures rising into the 40s in the afternoon. With temperatures above freezing and the sun expected to be shining, a good amount of snow should melt Sunday afternoon.

Loch Raven High student arrested after bringing pellet gun to school, Baltimore County police say

A 14-year-old Loch Raven High School student was arrested Thursday after Baltimore County police said he brought a pellet gun to school.

The incident, which came a day after a school shooting in Florida that left 17 dead, sent Loch Raven students hiding in their classrooms and their parents racing to the school for answers. The school was placed on lockdown as police searched the building.

No one was injured.

The student, whose name has not been released, had shown the pellet gun to another student, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz told reporters gathered near the school.

Trump’s Inauguration: Record Spending Leaves Little For Charities

More than a year after President Trump was sworn in, his inaugural committee said in tax filings that it raised nearly $107 million and spent almost all of the money.

Scott Olson/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Scott Olson/Getty Images

More than a year after President Trump was sworn in, his inaugural committee said in tax filings that it raised nearly $107 million and spent almost all of the money.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Updated Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m. ET

President Trump’s inaugural committee raised twice as much as any of its predecessors, but its final filing with the IRS shows it spent most of the money on events that were significantly scaled back from past years.

The Trump committee raised $106.8 million, roughly twice as much as President Barack Obama’s 2009 committee. Insiders suggested substantial gifts to charity with the unspent funds. Thomas Barrack, a Trump ally and president of the inaugural committee, told the Daily Beast last fall that the IRS filing “will show that millions of dollars of reserve funds will be allocated to various charities, institutions, and foundations in an amount that will surely exceed any previous inauguration.”

The filing doesn’t exactly show that.

The committee gave $1 million each to the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and Samaritan’s Purse in 2017. The filing shows three more contributions: $1 million to the White House Historical Association, $750,000 to the Vice President’s Residence Foundation and $250,000 to the Smithsonian Institution. Total contributions: $5 million.

That leaves about $2.7 million in the committee’s accounts. After final expenses are paid, Barrack said, remaining funds will go to “charities of similar stature and quality.”

Unlike campaign committees, inaugural committees are not required to give a detailed accounting of where their money goes.

One spending item drew immediate attention from watchdog groups. WIS Media Partners, a firm incorporated shortly after Trump was elected, was paid $25.8 million — more than any other vendor — for “event production services.” The New York Times reported WIS was created by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a friend of first lady Melania Trump, and Wolkoff herself was paid $1.62 million for her inaugural work. The Times said Wolkoff is also an unpaid adviser to the first lady.

“Mrs. Trump had no involvement with the [presidential inauguration committee], and had no knowledge of how funds were spent,” said Melania Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham. “Stephanie Winston Wolkoff is a contracted volunteer with the Office of the First Lady and has specified duties as outlined in her contract.”

Public Citizen, a liberal watchdog group, and the lawyers’ group Campaign Legal Center both pounced on the filing as proof that inaugural committees need better disclosure. Craig Holman of Public Citizen said the filing showed fiscal mismanagement, adding that it’s “no wonder” the inaugural committee didn’t make voluntary disclosures.

A representative of Barrack didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux Split ‘Lovingly’ After Two Years of Marriage

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux have split after two and a half years of marriage — and seven years as a couple, the Associated Press reports.

The former couple “say their split was ‘mutual and lovingly made at the end of last year,’ ” according to AP. 

“Normally we would do this privately, but given that the gossip industry cannot resist an opportunity to speculate and invent, we wanted to convey the truth directly,” says the statement released by longtime Aniston publicist Stephen Huvane. “Whatever else is printed about us that is not directly from us, is someone else’s fictional narrative. Above all, we are determined to maintain the deep respect and love that we have for one another.”

The couple announced that they split at the end of the last year, however, they celebrated the New Year together with their annual vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico alongside a handful of close pals including Jason Bateman and his family.

The two spent quite a bit of time apart in recent months raising questions. Theroux was often spotted in New York City away from their L.A. home. They have also had a busy year as Aniston signed on with Reese Witherspoon for a new Apple TV series and filmed Dumplin’ in Atlanta, while Theroux, 46, filmed the comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me in Budapest.

On Saturday, Aniston made an appearance at Ellen DeGeneres‘ birthday party without Theroux. She was spotted standing outside the Hollywood venue chatting with Pharrell.

The next day, the actress rang in her 49th birthday without the actor. Aniston celebrated in Malibu, California with a gathering including pals Courteney Cox, Andrea Bendewald, Leigh Kilton-Smith and Kristin Hahn on Sunday.

Theroux, meanwhile, was spotted out in New York City on Friday walking his dog. (Last year, the duo vacationed together in Los Cabos, Mexico with friends).

Sources recently told PEOPLE that their busy schedules worked for both of them and helped their marriage.

“Justin often spends a few days in NYC by himself,” a source previously told PEOPLE. “When he is in NYC, Jen will catch up with friends and enjoys her own life. When Justin is in L.A., it’s very special for them. They socialize together with friends. They often go out to dinner or have people over.”

Aniston showed off the $21 million L.A. home they designed together in the March issue of Architectural Digest, saying, “I look around at my husband and my dogs and our home, and there’s nowhere else I want to be.”

Aniston and Theroux first met on the Hawaii set of 2008’s Tropic Thunder and began dating in 2011. They later married in a surprise and secret ceremony on August 5, 2015 — just a few days before Theroux’s 44th birthday. A source close to the actress told PEOPLE at the time that the two were happy to have pulled off the surprise wedding, inviting friends to a backyard party under the ruse of celebrating Theroux’s birthday.

RELATED: Jennifer Aniston’s Designer Stephen Shadley Interview

 

“They seemed ecstatic,” the source said. “They celebrated late and barely slept, but they were in the best mood. They were giddy to have pulled off an amazing wedding celebration with their friends. And they were proud to finally be married.”

Aniston was previously married to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005 after starting their relationship in 1998. She later dated Vince Vaughn and John Mayer after her divorce from Pitt.

This is Theroux’s first marriage after previously dating hair stylist Heidi Bivens for 14 years before their breakup in 2011, shortly before he started dating Aniston. Theroux and Bivens shared an apartment in New York City before the split.

Dem poll: Trump favorability improves, GOP gains on generic House ballot

President TrumpDonald John TrumpTillerson: Russia already looking to interfere in 2018 midterms Dems pick up deep-red legislative seat in Missouri Speier on Trump’s desire for military parade: ‘We have a Napoleon in the making’ MORE’s approval rating is up and Republicans are within 4 points of Democrats on a generic House ballot, according to a new survey from the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA.

In a memo sent out Tuesday, the group warned Democrats that they must remain focused on health care and the economy and not to become distracted by Trump’s tweets or the day-to-day controversies that drive the news cycle.

“In the last few weeks, Democrats turned their attention to other issues while Trump has continued to promote his economic policies, and Trump’s numbers have incrementally improved as a result,” the memo states.

“While still on track for a successful November, the extent of Democratic gains will be blunted if Democrats do not reengage more aggressively in speaking to the economic and health care priorities of voters.”

The survey found Trump’s job approval at 44 percent positive and 53 percent negative, up from a 40-54 split in November. That is in line with other recent polling, which has showed the president’s approval rating ticking up from the historic lows it hit in late 2017.

A Politico–Morning Consult survey released Wednesday found that Trump is at an even 47 positive and 47 negative. That is more positive than most other surveys. According to the RealClearPolitics average, the president is at 41.4 positive and 53.9 negative.

The Priorities USA survey also found Democrats with an advantage, 46 percent to 42 percent, in the generic ballot for the House. Surveys conducted in late 2017 consistently found Democrats with a double-digit lead in the generic ballot, leading many election analysts to speculate that Democrats are headed for a wave election.

Still, the Priorities USA memo said the underlying fundamentals lean heavily in favor of Democrats.

Among undecided voters, Trump’s approval rating is at 35 percent positive and 50 percent negative. Fifty-one percent of voters said they’d prefer to see Democrats elected to act as a check on Trump’s power, compared to only 39 percent who said they’d prefer to see Republicans elected.

“The leanings of undecided voters and the preference for more Democrats to be a check on Trump both show that Trump is a lead weight for Republicans,” the memo states.

The party in power historically loses seats in midterm elections, and a string of retirements have left Republicans defending more seats in the House than they anticipated this year. And Democrats believe they will have an advantage in enthusiasm heading into November.

The Priorities memo found that among voters who are very excited to vote in the 2018 elections, the Democratic advantage on the generic ballot spikes to 11 points, 51 to 40. Seventy-eight percent of those who voted for Democratic nominee Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonTrump touts report Warner attempted to talk to dossier author Poll: Nearly half of Iowans wouldn’t vote for Trump in 2020 Rubio on Warner contact with Russian lobbyist: It’s ‘had zero impact on our work’ MORE in 2016 say they’re excited to vote this year, compared to only 64 percent of those who voted for Trump.

Still, the memo warns that Democrats need to stay focused on their economic message, not on running exclusively against Trump.

The survey found that attacking the GOP tax bill as a giveaway to the rich and powerful is a winning message, as strong majorities believe large corporations and the wealthy will benefit more than individuals.

“Democrats continue to have winning messages on health care and the economy, but right now voters are not hearing them. That must change,” the memo states.

“When voters have heard messages from both Democrats and Republicans on the tax bill, Democrats have won. Unfortunately, that debate has been relatively one-sided recently and voters have not heard nearly as much from Democrats. While Republican gains have not been enough to counter the extraordinary political environment for Democrats, it is imperative that Democrats return to focusing on the economic message and counter the narrative being pushed by the White House, Republicans in Congress and their special interest backers.”

The Priorities USA survey of 1,001 presidential year voters was conducted Feb. 2–7 by Garin-Hart-Yang and the Global Strategy Group and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Riding an Untamed Horse: Priebus Opens Up on Serving Trump

The meeting that nearly led to Mr. Session’s resignation came last May shortly after the president fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director who was heading an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and any cooperation with Mr. Trump’s campaign. The dismissal of Mr. Comey, which Mr. Trump in an interview with NBC News linked to his unhappiness with the Russia investigation, triggered the appointment of a special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to the ire of the president.

Mr. Trump was furious with Mr. Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and therefore losing control over it. Mr. Priebus’s account confirms and adds more detail to a New York Times report that the president berated Mr. Sessions in a meeting in the Oval Office, leading him to offer his resignation. Vice President Mike Pence and the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, were in the meeting, but Mr. Priebus was not.

“Don McGahn came in my office pretty hot, red, out of breath and said, ‘We’ve got a problem,’ ” Mr. Priebus recalled. “I responded, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘Well, we just got a special counsel and Sessions just resigned.’ I said, ‘What? What the hell are you talking about?’ And I said, ‘That can’t happen.’ ”

Mr. Priebus bolted down the back stairway of the West Wing and out the door to the parking lot and found Mr. Sessions in the back of a black sedan with the engine running and about to leave. “I knocked on the door of the car and Jeff was sitting there and I just jumped in and shut the door and I said, ‘Jeff, what’s going on?’ ” Mr. Priebus said. “And then he told me that he was going to resign.”

“I said, ‘You cannot resign. It’s not possible. We are going to talk about this right now,’” Mr. Priebus continued. “So I dragged him back up to my office from the car. Pence and Bannon came in,” he added, referring to Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, “and we started talking to him to the point where he decided that he would not resign right then and he would instead think about it.”

In the end, Mr. Sessions still drafted a resignation letter later that night and sent it to the White House. Mr. Priebus then went to work on Mr. Trump, arguing that he should not accept it. The president reluctantly agreed and Mr. Sessions stayed.

But that did not end the danger to the attorney general. A couple months later, Mr. Trump took his anger with Mr. Sessions public by telling The New York Times in an interview that he would not have appointed him attorney general had he known that he would recuse himself.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Behind the scenes, Mr. Trump once again demanded Mr. Sessions’s resignation. Citing a White House insider, Mr. Whipple’s book says the president told Mr. Priebus to act on his order. “Don’t try to slow me down like you always do,” Mr. Trump told him. “Get the resignation of Jeff Sessions.”

Mr. Priebus, however, did try to slow him down and argued that pushing out Mr. Sessions would result in the resignations of the second- and third-ranking Justice Department officials too. “If I get this resignation, you are in for a spiral of calamity that makes Comey look like a picnic,” Mr. Priebus warned him. Again, Mr. Trump backed down.

But in other ways he did not. Mr. Priebus said he and other aides — including Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter; Jared Kushner, his son-in-law; and Hope Hicks, his communications director — regularly tried to convince Mr. Trump that his random, often incendiary Twitter messages were self-destructive.

“I told him, ‘Some of it’s not helpful, it causes distraction. We can get thrown off our message by tweeting things that aren’t the issues of the day,’ ” he said. But he did not get through. “Everybody tried at different times to cool down the Twitter habit — but no one could do it. Not me, Jared, Ivanka, Hope.”

Even the first lady weighed in when her husband addressed Congress. “After the joint session, we all talked to him and Melania said, ‘No tweeting,’ ” Mr. Priebus said. “And he said, ‘OK — for the next few days.’ We had many discussions involving this issue. We had meetings in the residence. I couldn’t stop it.”

The challenge was clear from the very start when Mr. Trump called him the morning after he was sworn in ranting about news coverage comparing the size of his inaugural crowd with that of his predecessor. Mr. Priebus tried to calm the new president, but ultimately had to go along. “Am I going to go to war over this with the president of the United States?” he asked himself.

Mr. Priebus’s inability to control Mr. Trump or even control who could wander in and out of the Oval Office caused consternation. Mr. Bannon told Mr. Whipple that John F. Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security, complained to him about it. “He said to me, ‘It really upsets me that I walk in the Oval Office and it’s like Grand Central Station,’ ” said Mr. Bannon.

Ultimately, Mr. Trump would pick Mr. Kelly to replace Mr. Priebus. But Mr. Kelly, who initially earned plaudits for imposing more order on the West Wing, lately has come under fire for his management of the White House, particularly his handling of spousal abuse allegations that resulted in the resignation of the staff secretary, Rob Porter.

Mr. Priebus said that Mr. Trump has spent his whole life resisting the sort of organization that others would like to impose on him. “The idea that he was suddenly going to accept an immediate and elaborate staff structure regulating every minute of his life was never in the cards,” Mr. Priebus said. “At least not on Day One.”

Follow Peter Baker on Twitter: @peterbakernyt.


Continue reading the main story

Modesto couple identified in Tracy woman’s slaying

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office identified the Modesto couple Tuesday that was arrested after a 19-year-old woman, on her death bed, named one of them as a suspect, investigators.

Daniel Gross, 19, and Melissa Leonardo, 25, were arrested Monday at the home where they live in Modesto. The two are believed to be in a dating relationship, according to the sheriff’s office. Both are being held in the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County.

Lizette Andrea Cuesta, 19, was left still alive on the side of a road outside Livermore after she was stabbed multiple times, deputies said.

Cuesta crawled about 100 yards up to Tesla Road, near Interstate 580, and was found about 2 a.m. Monday by two good Samaritans from Modesto who were on their way to work.

The coworkers tried to comfort Cuesta, grabbed a blanket for her in the cold darkness and said a prayer with her until first responders arrived.

Cuesta was taken by helicopter to Eden Hospital in Castro Valley, where she gave investigators what’s known as a “dying declaration.” She named Gross as a suspect, officers said.

Two hours later, Cuesta died.

Investigators believe Cuesta got into the suspects’ car willingly, according to Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly, but have not detailed what led up to the deadly stabbing.

Detectives will look at video evidence during the investigation, and officers added that there was “tremendous evidence” found at the crime scene, Kelly said.

No additional details have been released.

Stay with KCRA for updates.

AlertMe