Current Events

The person killed in the tragic Texas plane crash has been identified ... and he's even being honored by folks at the highest reaches of government.

Joshua Baer -- a prominent tech and finance mogul who has been called the godfather of Austin, Texas' startup scene -- died in Tuesday night's crash, according to multiple reports.

Joshua was the founder of Capital Factory ... a startup accelerator and investment group, which injected life into Texas' economy by bringing in and nurturing multiple businesses over the last two decades.

A private jet carrying six passengers crashed Tuesday night on a highway in Texas, killing one person and triggering a massive rescue operation, according to police.

The fiery disaster was captured through multiple videos ... including one showing the plane slamming down on a highway.

As seen in one of the angles captured via dashcam ... a car is driving down the highway in Laredo while filming the plane flying low in the near distance. It's a bit hard to see at first, but suddenly, the plane drops down from the sky and crashes on the other side of the highway with what appears to be flames shooting up.

A personal trainer in South Carolina has gone missing ... eerily vanishing into the woods after she was done working out at the gym.

According to Lexington police ... Elena Katherine Moore has been missing since last Thursday ... when she was last seen leaving Planet Fitness just after 9 PM ... wandering into a nearby wooded area.

Authorities have searched the area on foot and with a drone ... and so far, nothing.

The young woman who plummeted to her death during a bungee-jumping excursion in Brazil was still alive after hitting the ground 130-feet below ... at least according to an off-duty nursed who tried to save her.

Nurse Rayza Dias told local news ... Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was alive for a short time when she landed after being thrown off an abandoned bridge without a bungee cord.

As TMZ reported ... video circulating online appears to show bungee jump operators escorting Freitas to the edge of the structure -- known locally as Skeleton Bridge -- before throwing her over the side.

Moments later, people at the scene reportedly realized something was terribly wrong ... as the 21-year-old plummeted roughly 130 feet without the rope being attached.

Dias says Maria was still conscious when she got to her ... and she talked to the young girl, trying to tell her she was going to be OK.

The young woman who plummeted to her death during a bungee-jumping excursion in Brazil posted on social media before the fatal jump ... and her comment is pretty creepy.

According to screenshots from the now-shuttered IG account ... Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas posted, "Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge???" The IG Story included a picture of the bridge in Limeira, a city in São Paulo state.

As TMZ reported ... video circulating online appears to show staff members escorting Freitas to the edge of the structure -- known locally as Skeleton Bridge -- before she was sent over the side. Moments later, people at the scene reportedly realized something was terribly wrong ... as the 20-year-old plummeted roughly 131 feet without the bungee cord being attached.

The body of a 5-year-old girl who was swept into the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast has been recovered ... ending a desperate search that captivated the area for nearly two days.

Authorities confirmed the child was pulled into the water near Laguna Beach, about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, during dangerous surf conditions Tuesday night. Bystanders were able to rescue her mother and her sibling, but the girl disappeared beneath the waves.

Her body was found Thursday morning, less than a day after the U.S. Coast Guard suspended a massive search operation that spanned more than 30 hours and covered over 90 square miles of ocean.

A carriage horse in NYC's famed Central Park collapsed and died ... traumatizing onlookers as efforts to revive the poor animal were unsuccessful ... and it's all on video.

Heartbreaking footage shows the horse laid out on the ground and the carriage driver in distress ... as someone rushes in to do compressions on the brown-and-white equine.

NYPD tells us ... officers responded after a 911 call came in around 7:30 PM Tuesday for a horse suffering a medical episode. Police confirmed the horse did not survive.

Karmelo Anthony was defending himself when he fatally stabbed Austin Metcalf because Austin was using "deadly force" ... at least that's what Karmelo's defense is saying.

Closing arguments began in Karmelo's murder trial Tuesday, and the defense went first.

Defense attorney Mike Howard told the jury Austin "had no legal right" to put his hands on Karmelo, or use force to remove him from the tent they were under at a Texas high school track meet.

Howard described how it was raining during the event, and someone from Frisco Memorial High School allegedly told Karmelo he could come under their tent to stay dry.

Howard continued ... "Then all of the sudden Hunter Metcalf, or Austin, says 'Who are you? You need to leave.' ... These guys are much bigger than you. Do you turn your back and walk away and take a chance with these teenage boys with their raging hormones?"

The knife Karmelo Anthony allegedly used to fatally stab Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet wasn't illegal under Texas law ... according to a police detective who testified in Anthony's murder trial.

The testimony came as Anthony's defense team wrapped up its case, with jurors hearing from Detective Beau Riley -- a member of Frisco PD's Crimes Against Children unit who responded to the scene of the fatal stabbing.

One of the key moments came when Anthony's attorney had Riley confirm the knife Anthony carried that day was legal to possess in Texas ... and legal to bring into a stadium.

As Luigi Mangione awaits trial for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, his sister is making headlines in the healthcare world for a very different reason.

MariaSanta Mangione, 36, is set to begin a cardiovascular disease fellowship at Johns Hopkins University -- one of the most prestigious and competitive medical programs in the country ... according to the Daily Mail.

It's a major milestone for MariaSanta, whose selection marks the latest achievement in an already impressive medical career.

No cause of death will be released in the case of college student James "Weston" Higginbotham -- who vanished during a family trip to Japan before being found dead.

Authorities say that while they are not disclosing how the 20-year-old died, there is no indication of foul play.

As we reported ... the Auburn University junior was found by a volunteer search-and-rescue group in a mountainous area outside Kyoto, according to a Facebook post shared by his parents.

Emotional moment in Karmelo Anthony's murder trial ... tears started flowing as prosecutors played bodycam footage of paramedics trying to save Austin Metcalf from a fatal stab wound.

The gut-wrenching footage played in court Friday, showed paramedics giving Austin CPR after he was stabbed at a Texas high school track meet. He's unresponsive on the ground as they try to save his life.

It was hard for Austin's parents to watch ... they broke down in tears and were held by family members while the footage played.

An Arkansas dad accused of killing a man charged with sexually abusing his teenage daughter has scored a massive courtroom victory ... because he's off the hook in his murder case.

A judge on Thursday tossed the second-degree murder charge against Aaron Spencer, the Arkansas father who became a national headline after launching a campaign for county sheriff while awaiting trial.

The ruling stems from a lengthy fight over missing evidence. Spencer's attorneys argued investigators lost key materials during the case ... and the judge ultimately decided misconduct by law enforcement "was so egregious that dismissal of this case is warranted."

Karmelo Anthony fought Austin Metcalf for four minutes under a tent at a Texas high school track meet before fatally stabbing him ... at least that's what prosecutors say the surveillance video shows.

Jurors were shown footage that appears to show one person shoving another person under the tent at the 2025 track meet where Austin was stabbed.

Prosecutors say it's Karmelo and Austin in the video ... even though you can't see their faces. They say this goes on for four minutes before a person -- who they claim is Karmelo -- is seen running from the tent, toward the exit.

Prosecutors say surveillance video will show Karmelo Anthony wasn't trying to avoid trouble at a Texas high school track meet that turned deadly ... he was looking for it.

That's the message jurors heard Thursday as opening statements got underway in Anthony's murder trial over the fatal stabbing of fellow teen Austin Metcalf.

Collin County prosecutor Bill Wirskye told the jury the case boils down to what they will see on surveillance footage from the scene, saying the "video tells the story." According to prosecutors, witnesses heard Anthony tell Metcalf, "Touch me, see what happens," after a dispute erupted inside a team tent.

2:25PM PT -- Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Homicide Bureau detectives have posted a second update, saying they've "determined that Mr. Whiten is the biological father of Ms. Savannah Whiten and Ms. Sienna Whiten, and co-parent to Ms. Hyer."  

The statement adds ... "The investigation revealed that Mr. Whiten committed these heinous acts and then took his own life. The investigation continues."

A Florida realtor, her ex-husband, and their two young daughters are all dead ... in what police are calling a murder-suicide.

Law enforcement responded Tuesday to a welfare check at a Doral home and found Melanie Hyer, Ryan Whiten and their daughters Savannah and Sienna dead, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office.

MDSO says all four had stab wounds and they believe the tragic incident is a murder-suicide ... but no word yet on who did the stabbing.