Influx of travelers take to the skies for Memorial Day - Yahoo! Voices

Influx of travelers take to the skies for Memorial Day

ABC News’ Gio Benitez reports on the airports across the U.S. preparing for nearly 3.4 million people traveling via the skies this holiday weekend.

This AANHPI Heritage Month, "Good Morning America" is honoring the 26-year-old hero who disarmed a mass shooter in California earlier this year during Lunar New Year celebrations. Brandon Tsay was at his family's dance hall, Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, California, on the night of Jan. 21 when a man armed with a gun went inside. After what he described as a "struggle," Tsay was able to pull the gun away from the man before he could fire it.

When one California man recently walked into a regional bank, he wasn't expecting to leave as a hero. Michael Armus Sr. was at Bank of the West depositing a check on Monday when police say 42-year-old Eduardo Placensia passed a note to a teller, claiming he had explosives and demanding money. Armus said he recognized the suspect as a former neighbor and friend of his daughter and immediately knew he needed to step in.

With Memorial Day weekend travel underway, U.S. airports recorded the highest number of passengers on Thursday since before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Transportation Security Administration said it screened 2,658,057 people at checkpoints across the country on Thursday, the highest daily number since 2019. According to AAA, airports could see the busiest Memorial Day weekend since 2005.

The federal government has made a push toward enacting policies addressing climate change in recent years, but state lawmakers in Montana are bucking the trend, recently passing a law curbing climate impact reviews in the state. State Rep. Josh Kassmier last month introduced House Bill 971, an amendment to the Montana Environmental Policy Act that changes the process of how large projects are reviewed by preventing state regulators from considering greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts when conducting environmental reviews. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law on May 10.

A Tennessee judge's unprecedented ruling granting parents the legal right to object to the release of police evidence in a Nashville school mass shooting case could produce a chilling effect on what law enforcement officials make public about violent crime in the future, experts told ABC News. Davidson County Chancery Court Judge I'Ashea L. Myles ruled on Wednesday that the parents of students who were killed or traumatized by the March 27 massacre at the Covenant School have a legal standing to intervene on behalf of their children in lawsuits requesting evidence, including the shooter's writings, be released to the public. "There's no roadmap on this," Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition on Open Government, a nonprofit that advocates for transparency in government, told ABC News.

The landscape of abortion rights has shifted dramatically in the 11 months since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights. The decision left it up to states to decide how to regulate abortion services. States in the West and Northeast have since taken steps to expand and protect abortion rights, while states across the South, Great Plains and Midwest have moved to ban or restrict abortion care.

The Indiana Medical Licensing Board decided late Thursday to reprimand and fine a doctor after ruling that she violated patient privacy laws by talking to a newspaper reporter about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio. After an hourslong hearing, the board voted to issue Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Caitlin Bernard a letter of reprimand and a fine of $3,000, but refused a request from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita to suspend Bernard's license. The board dismissed Rokita's allegations that Bernard violated state law by not reporting the child abuse to Indiana authorities.

The 123 federal prisons in the United States need roughly $2 billion worth of "maintenance" and most are "aging and deteriorating," according to a DOJ inspector general report. In three prisons, the conditions are so bad they had to be closed -- including the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan, which held Jeffrey Epstein prior to his death. "We're seeing crumbling prisons," DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz told Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was asked on Thursday about potentially using his pardon power if elected president to offer clemency to Jan. 6 defendants or even Donald Trump -- and while he didn't answer directly, he suggested he would consider it. DeSantis made his comments while appearing on the "The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show" amid an early media blitz one day after launching a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Do you think the Jan. 6 defendants deserve to have their cases examined by a Republican president?

Seeking to strike a reassuring tone despite days of negotiations, President Joe Biden said Thursday afternoon that he's had several "productive conversations" with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and their teams are "making progress" on debt ceiling talks as the country inches closer to default. "I've made it clear time and again: Defaulting on our national debt is not an option," Biden said as he delivered remarks in the Rose Garden before nominating a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen maintains that the U.S. government could run out of cash to pay all its bills in early June, possibly as soon as June 1.

Three former Jackson Police Department officers were indicted by a grand jury last week on homicide charges in the death of Keith Murriel, a Mississippi man who died in police custody on Dec. 31, 2022. Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens, II, announced the charges against former officers Kenya McCarty, Avery Willis and James Land in a press conference on Wednesday. Owens said that McCarty and Willis were each charged with second-degree murder, while Land was charged with manslaughter.

Jenna Johnson and her husband Val Chmerkovskiy are enjoying parenthood. On Thursday, the couple, both "Dancing with the Stars" pros, shared photos of themselves spending time with their son, Rome Valentin Chmerkovskiy, who was born in January. The family wore matching denim in one Instagram photo shared by Johnson.

Actress and country singer Jana Kramer is engaged. In a new episode of her “Whine Down with Jana Kramer” podcast, Kramer revealed she is engaged to boyfriend, former soccer player Allan Russell. The “One Tree Hill” alum shared how Russell popped the question and said it was on the porch steps of the new home they are building together.

Elijah Muhammad has achieved something not many 13 year olds can brag about: He's a college graduate. Elijah told ABC News affiliate KOCO that he also has 10 IBM certifications, one Google IT certification and is pursuing a bachelor's degree at Oklahoma State University. "My dad has a homeschool program called Pro One Collegiate Academy and it basically accelerates your learning into things that you're interested in," Elijah told "Good Morning America."

A recent high school graduate from Louisiana is missing after going overboard while on a trip to the Bahamas, school officials said. Cameron Robbins, who attended University Laboratory School in Baton Rouge, was on a trip with a group of students when he went overboard Wednesday night, school officials said. "As of this interview right now he has not been located," Kevin George, director of the Laboratory School, told ABC Baton Rouge affiliate WBRZ midday Thursday.

A senior adviser to the super PAC backing Gov. Ron DeSantis for president participated Thursday in a LIV Golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, along with the Florida governor's 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump. Phil Cox, who serves as a senior adviser to Never Back Down super PAC, and who also advised the governor during his successful 2020 reelection bid, teed off Thursday morning at the controversial Saudi-backed tournament, according to multiple sources and a schedule of the event obtained by ABC News.

A Mississippi mom is demanding justice after she says her 11-year-old son was allegedly shot and injured by a police officer who responded to their home. Nakala Murry said she was asleep when, around 4 a.m. Saturday, she heard a knock on her window and saw her daughter's father standing there. Murry said she gave her phone to her 11-year-old son, Aderrien, and told him to call his grandmother.

Drew Barrymore said she is open with her children about her ups and downs throughout her legendary career. "I have to talk to my kids about all my wild days," Barrymore, now a mother of two daughters, 10-year-old Olive and 9-year-old Frankie, told ABC Audio. "I think we just need to celebrate our histories and be excited about all the things it took for us to become whoever it is we are today, if you're happy with that person," Barrymore said.

A Texas family is mourning the loss of a beloved father and the hospitalization of his young son following a lightning strike. Matthew Boggs was walking his sons Elijah, 11, and Grayson, 6, home after school on May 15, when lightning struck him and Grayson, according to Stephanie Burris, who is Boggs' first cousin. Burris told "Good Morning America" that the father and sons were walking together on the family's driveway in Valley Mills, Texas, after Boggs picked up his sons from the bus stop.

A sharply divided Supreme Court on Thursday significantly rolled back federal safeguards for wetlands under the Clean Water Act, siding with Idaho property owners in a decision that curbs Environmental Protection Agency power. The case, Sackett v. EPA, pitted Michael and Chantell Sackett against EPA regulators over a bid to build a family home adjacent to Priest Lake in northern Idaho. The government said their land qualifies as a protected wetland, requiring an expensive permit for construction, while the family argued that its property is not directly connected to the lake and that the broad EPA regulations are an overreach.