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A year 13 year-old black student in Ohio was told by his white teacher that he would be lynched by his friends if he didn't stay on task.

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A 13-year-old black student at an Ohio middle school was reportedly told by his white teacher that he would be lynched by his friends if he didn't get back to work, his mother said.

Tanisha Agee-Bell, of Mason, said her son's social studies teacher, Renee Thole, made the comment to her son in December during class.

"[My son told us] his teacher had told him that if he didn't get back on task, that his friends were going to lynch him, and we thought he must have misunderstood," Agee-Bell told FOX 19.

She sought clarification from Thole - and couldn't believe the response.

According to the mother, Thole told her that she told Nathan that "if he didn't get back on task, his friend were going to form an angry mob and lynch him."

"I was just taken aback because I said, 'what you said is actually worse than what he said you said,'" she told the news station. "He had told her, 'that's racist.'"

Agee-Bell acknowledges that her son may have been distracted or talking too much in class, however believes Thole crossed a line with reference to darker times among the black community in the United States.

More than 3,440 African-Americans were lynched in the United States between 1882 and the height of the civil rights movement nearly a century later, according to the NAACP's website.

"The hardest part is that even though he knows he did nothing wrong, he still is punished because he lost opportunity with his friends," she said.

Nathan has been removed from Thole's classroom.

Thole has reportedly apologized to the class for offending Nathan, however the spokesman with school district declined to say whether she had been disciplined.

"We have seen an uptick in the number of racially and culturally insensitive comments in our schools and community. Sometimes these are said out of genuine ignorance. For example, some students contend that they are not being offensive if they say n***a vs. the n-word," the district said in a statement to FOX 19. "As a district, we want to be very clear. We are not OK normalizing racial slurs. Anyone who does so faces disciplinary action."

District officials acknowledged that more needs to be done and praised Nathan for being "brave enough to confront his teacher when the incident happened."

"Our district will continue to invest in training and resources on culturally proficient practices for administrators, educators and classified staff members that lift up our district's values," the statement concluded.

Agee-Bell, who is a member of the district's diversity council, said she believes Thole should at least be removed from her classroom.

"I don't know if she's racist, but I know that what she said is racist," she said. "I want the district to take ownership of this and to work to make the environment better for all students. They said they want to have a safe nurturing environment for all students. My son doesn't feel safe, and that's not OK."

The news of the incident at the Mason Middle School comes at the same time a recreation basketball team in nearby Kings - about a mile east - was dismissed from the league for wearing racist and derogatory jerseys.

The team, made up of high school-aged students, showed up for a regular game this week as part of the Cincinnati Premier Youth Basketball League wearing jerseys that read "Wet Dream Team" in the front.

In place of the players' real names, at least three jerseys had terms like "Knee Grow" and "Coon."

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Teacher told black student he'd be 'lynched by angry mob,' parent says

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A 13-year-old black student at an Ohio middle school was reportedly told by his white teacher that he would be lynched by his friends if he didn't get back to work, his mother said. Tanisha Agee-Bell, of Mason, said her son's social studies teacher, Renee Thole, made the comment to her son in December during class.

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Mark Zuckerberg is changing the Facebook news feed in 2018 to show more about your friends and family instead of businesses and ads

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Facebook is changing its site so that users can have "more meaningful social interactions," according to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Interested in Facebook?

Add Facebook as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Facebook news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

In a Facebook post on Thursday evening, Zuckerberg wrote that there will be several changes made to the site over the next few months. The first changes will be in Facebook's News Feed, where users will see more content from friends and family instead of businesses and brands.

"Since there's more public content than posts from your friends and family, the balance of what's in News Feed has shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do -- help us connect with each other," wrote Zuckerberg.

According to Zuckerberg, these changes are in response to user's complaints that their News Feed has become overcrowded with public content.

Head of News Feed Adam Mosseri went into more detail about the exact updates in a statement, explaining that Facebook will predict which posts users might want to interact with their friends about, and show these posts higher in News Feed.

"[Prioritized posts] are posts that inspire back-and-forth discussion in the comments and posts that you might want to share and react to- whether that's a post from a friend seeking advice, a friend asking for recommendations for a trip, or a news article or video prompting lots of discussion." said Mosseri.

The same concept applies for posts from individual pages. Page posts that generate conversation will be placed higher in News Feed, according to Mosseri.

"For example, live videos often lead to discussion among viewers on Facebook," said Mosseri. "Local businesses connect with their communities by posting relevant updates and creating events. And news can help start conversations on important issues."

Facebook will also show fewer videos from publishers and businesses, which may have an impact on pages with posts that people don't generally react to or comment on, according to Mosseri.

According to Zuckerberg, Facebook has conducted research showing that connecting with people through social media can be good for the user's well-being.

"We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term measures of happiness and health," Zuckerberg wrote. "On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos -- even if they're entertaining or informative -- may not be as good.

"Facebook has always been about personal connections," Zuckerberg added. "By focusing on bringing people closer together -- whether it's with family and friends, or around important moments in the world -- we can help make sure that Facebook is time well spent."

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Facebook changing News Feed to increase 'meaningful interactions'

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Facebook is changing its site so that users can have "more meaningful social interactions," according to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In a Facebook post on Thursday evening, Zuckerberg wrote that there will be several changes made to the site over the next few months. The first...

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California man confesses to a 1993 murder Brian Hawkins 44 confesses to the murder of Frank McAlister the outlet reporter

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In a riveting television moment this week, a California man shed tears and claimed that he murdered a teenager in Northern California nearly 25 years ago.

Brian Keith Hawkins, 44, walked into the KRCR-TV station in Redding, Calif., and said he wanted to confess to the 1993 killing of Frank McAlister, the outlet reported. Hawkins said his newfound faith in God led him to seek forgiveness.

The station agreed to the interview, but stated it could not air it until after he turned himself in and police corroborated the confession.

"I know the wrong can't be changed but this is the closest I can come to doing the right thing," Hawkins told the station.

Hawkins named two accomplices: siblings Curtis Culver, 45, and Shanna Culver, 46.

Nearly 25 years ago, they set up a phony drug deal in Shingletown, Calif., to rob McAlister of money he brought to buy methamphetamine, Redding Police said in a news release. They robbed him, and Hawkins and Curtis Culver stabbed him to death, leaving his body in the woods and dumping his car in a Costco parking lot, according to police.

McAlister's family had reported him missing, but his remains would not be found until the following year by a hiker in Shingletown, about 29 miles east of Redding.

McAlister's grandmother, Avis Rice of Anderson, told the Redding Searchlight that she and her family members were stunned to learn of the arrests so long after the murder.

"It is such a shock to us," she told the paper.

Hawkins and the Culver siblings were arrested and were being held in the Shasta County jail.

This was the Redding Police Department's first big break in the two-decades-old cold case.

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California man confesses to 1993 murder in tearful TV interview; police arrest three

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In a riveting television moment this week, a California man shed tears and claimed that he murdered a teenager in Northern California nearly 25 years ago. Brian Keith Hawkins, 44, walked into the KRCR-TV station in Redding, Calif., and said he wanted to confess to the 1993 killing of Frank McAlister, the outlet reported.

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Sleepwalking Cavaliers don't show up north of the border

The Cleveland Cavaliers were sent to their seventh loss in 10 games after a short-handed Toronto Raptors team blew them out in Canada.

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TORONTO -- Call it an excuse. Or call it an example of an athlete being honest and self-aware. But LeBron James' comments at the shootaround Thursday morning about the struggling Cleveland Cavaliers ended up being prescient when it came to the beatdown in store for his team from the Toronto Raptors later that night.

"This is just us during the regular season," James said hours before the Cavs' 133-99 loss to the Raptors. "This is just us. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at times."

Cleveland showed its unseemly side again, losing for the seventh time in its past 10 games -- looking more like the team that started the season 5-7 through its first 12 games than the squad that reeled off 18 wins in 19 games to follow that.

It was hard to point to the biggest culprit for the Cavs because so much went wrong.

Outside of James -- 26 points on 9-for-16 shooting -- Cleveland's offense was anemic. Kevin Love followed up his 1-for-7 night in the Cavs' loss to Minnesota on Monday with a 2-for-8 night against Toronto for 10 points. Isaiah Thomas missed his first 11 shots before finally finding the net, finishing 2-for-15 for four points. JR Smith went missing again, shooting 0-for-5 (he was 0-for-7 against Minnesota). And Cleveland's bench was outclassed by Toronto's reserves 76-48.

All told, it was one of the Cavs' worst shooting nights of the season as they connected on just 38.2 percent from the field as a team and an even worse 6-for-26 (23.1 percent) from 3-point territory.

Frustration got the better of James, as he was captured by the TNT cameras in an animated yelling match with Cavs player development coach Phil Handy in the first half. The video was later posted to the @ballgod Instagram account where Kyrie Irving, of all people, liked it.

One of the few bright spots for Cleveland was Tristan Thompson, back in his hometown, contributing eight points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes. His play, coupled with an ineffective stint by Channing Frye, could quiet those who blame Thompson's return from a strained left calf as the main reason for the Cavs' struggles of late, as he replaced Frye in the rotation. Frye started the second quarter and the Raptors' lead quickly increased from six to 12 before coach Tyronn Lue pulled him after four minutes.

Following a film session on Wednesday, when Lue highlighted all the poor possessions the Cavs had against the Wolves when they simply didn't play hard enough to give themselves a chance, Cleveland appeared to be a loose group heading into the night.

This Raptors game -- a nationally televised affair against a playoff foe from the previous two seasons -- would typically be the type of game the Dr. Jekyll Cavs would show up for. While some lackadaisical play could be expected for a team coming off three straight NBA Finals appearances, Thursday, supposedly, would be a night that would grab Cleveland's attention.

Then again, there's another Cavs trope that applied to Thursday night: underperforming when the other team is undermanned. The Raptors were missing two of their big three in Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, and rather than that result in an easy night for Cleveland, all it did was set the stage for guys such as Fred VanVleet, Jakob Poeltl, Norman Powell and Pascal Siakam to make an impact.

Cleveland will finish its five-game road trip Friday in Indianapolis, with a 2-3 record the best it can hope for. And when the Cavs finally return to Cleveland after this stretch of 11 straight days on the road, their welcome-home gift is a matchup with the Golden State Warriors on Monday.

If this is just the Cavs in the regular season, then this could continue to be just ugly in the interim.

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Raptors rout sleepwalking Cavaliers in Toronto

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TORONTO -- Call it an excuse. Or call it an example of an athlete being honest and self-aware. But LeBron James' comments at the shootaround Thursday morning about the struggling Cleveland Cavaliers ended up being prescient when it came to the beatdown in store for his team from the Toronto Raptors later that night.

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With the flu raging hospitals are running out of basic essentials supplies

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A local hospital in Baltimore discharged the woman out of her hospital room to a near by bus stop. While this was happening a man recorded the whole thing, showing that women had nothing but a hospital gown and her clothes were put next to her. The man who recorded called the cops and ambulance truck came and took her right back to the same hospital.

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Video shows patient left at cold bus stop at night, wearing only a hospital gown | CNN

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The incident happened near the University of Maryland Medical Center, and was filmed by a mental health professional.

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Arizona woman killed husband then ran errands, prayed at church, police say

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An Arizona woman was arrested Tuesday after she fatally shot her husband in the head and then spent two days running errands around the state, including praying at church, according to officials.

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A former Missouri middle school football couch was sentence to death in the abduction and murder of  a 10 year old girl. Craig Wood, 49, was convicted in November for the February 2014 death of Hailey Owens. Hailey was in a fourth grader at the time, she had stayed home a few days after being sick. Wood then snatched her off a Springfield, Mo., street in broad daylight in front of horrified witnesses. Neighbors tried to rescue her, even chasing after the suspect and recording his license plate number. He took Hailey to his home, where he raped the child and shot her in the head, according to authorities. Her body was found in his basement, they said.

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A former middle-school football coach convicted of abducting and killing a 10-year-old girl in Missouri has been sentenced to death.

Circuit Judge Thomas Mountjoy issued his ruling Thursday in the case of Craig Wood, 49, who was convicted in November for the February 2014 death of Hailey Owens.

Although Wood was convicted of first-degree murder, the jury couldn't agree on whether to sentence him to death, or life in prison without parole, leaving the judge to decide.

Mountjoy previously denied motions from Wood's attorneys that sought a new trial and called judge-imposed death sentences unconstitutional.

Hailey, a fourth-grader at the time, had been sick for a few days, so stayed at home from school, mother Stacey Herman told the Springfield News-Leader.

Wood then snatched her off a Springfield, Mo., street in broad daylight in front of horrified witnesses, reports said.

Neighbors tried to rescue her, even chasing after the suspect and recording his license plate number.

Wood therafter took Hailey to his home, where he raped the child and shot her in the head, according to authorities. Her body was found in his basement, they said.

Prosecutors described Wood going to a store to buy bleach and a laundromat to clean his clothes.

Springfield residents and others reacted on social media after Wood's death sentence, the News-Leader reported.

Some of the News-Leader's readers were, however, opposed to the death penalty.

"It costs more to keep a prisoner on death row than life in prison. Why?" reader Ginger Williamson wrote to the newspaper. "Who do you think pays for all those appeals? We the taxpayers do."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Missouri man sentenced to death in rape, murder of 10-year-old girl

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A former middle-school football coach convicted of abducting and killing a 10-year-old girl in Missouri has been sentenced to death. Circuit Judge Thomas Mountjoy issued his ruling Thursday in the case of Craig Wood, 49, who was convicted in November for the February 2014 death of Hailey Owens.

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When Alyssa Alcarez was sent home from school after throwing up, her family thought she probably had a “bug” of some sort – maybe even a mild case of the flu. The next day, Alcarez’s mother, Keila Lino, decided to take her daughter to a nearby urgent care, where doctors confirmed her suspicion: Alcarez had the flu.

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When Alyssa Alcarez was sent home from school after throwing up, her family thought she probably had a "bug" of some sort - maybe even a mild case of the flu.

The next day, Alcarez's mother, Keila Lino, decided to take her daughter to a nearby urgent care, where doctors confirmed her suspicion: Alcarez had the flu.

Doctors gave the young girl some nausea medicine and cough syrup, just in case.

"She's been sick before with a cold and flu that has lasted longer," Lino told Fox News. "It was nothing new for us. Like any normal teen, she just wanted to be left alone on her phone."

Over the next four days, Alcarez's health continued to deteriorate. She was fatigued, had no appetite and was having trouble breathing.

When medication, rest and fluids failed, Lino rushed her daughter to urgent care. A physician told Lino the seventh grader's oxygen levels were low, and Alcarez was rushed to Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, California.

"The doctor wanted to rule out meningitis, though she wasn't complaining about her neck, he didn't want to rule it," Lino explained. "We were starting to do that procedure to test her fluid when she coded."

The 12-year-old went into cardiac arrest, which, her parents say, was a result of septic shock from a strep infection in her blood - an infection she had no idea her daughter was suffering from. Within hours, Alcarez was dead.

It wasn't until days after her daughter died, on Dec. 17, that Lino learned the cause of her death.

"A couple days after she passed, we got a call from the lab at the funeral home," Lino said. "We were shocked by it. Doctors said it was the flu, but it was a bacteria infection due to strep that shut down [her] organs all within three days."

With the nation suffering from an unusually severe flu season, Lino says she isn't surprised her daughter was misdiagnosed with the flu.

The flu is now widespread in 46 states, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). California is being hit particularly hard. State health officials say at least 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in the state since October.

"I know right now with the flu season clinics, hospitals, everyone is just busy and assuming that's what everyone has," Lino said. "But it's more than that. In order for us to know, with simple blood work, it could have been caught. Something so simple."

Lino, a mother of four, said she's sharing her daughter's story as a warning to other parents, encouraging them to push doctors to do further testing.

"We want to do something on her behalf and make a change in some way," Lino said. "It's not fair. We know it's not fair. We don't want revenge. We want changes. We want something positive out of this."

Alcarez's father, Jeremy, agreed - and thanked the dozens of people who have showed support for the family since Alcarez's unexpected death. Nearly 200 people raised $12,350 via GoFundMe to help cover funeral expenses.

"She loved to sing. She was a smart girl, beautiful," Jeremy said. "It was awesome. She had a beautiful funeral."

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California girl, 12, dies from infection misdiagnosed as flu, family says

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When Alyssa Alcarez was sent home from school after throwing up, her family thought she probably had a "bug" of some sort - maybe even a mild case of the flu. The next day, Alcarez's mother, Keila Lino, decided to take her daughter to a nearby urgent care, where doctors confirmed her suspicion: Alcarez had the flu.

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A little boy who was shot in the Texas church massacre arrived home today riding through town on a firetruck after more than two months in the hospital. On Nov. 5, a gunman stormed the  First Baptist Church, leaving 26 dead. The attack was deemed the worst mass shooting in Texas history. Among the injured was now-6-year-old Ryland Ward, who was shot several times. Volunteer firefighter Rusty Duncan was the one who pulled him out to safety.

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A little boy who was shot in the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church massacre arrived home today -- riding through town on a firetruck -- after more than two months in the hospital.

Interested in Texas Church Shooting?

Add Texas Church Shooting as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Texas Church Shooting news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

On Nov. 5, a gunman stormed the rural First Baptist Church, leaving 26 dead, according to police, who have included an unborn child in the death count. The attack was deemed the worst mass shooting in Texas history.

Among the injured was now-6-year-old Ryland Ward, who was shot several times.

Volunteer firefighter Rusty Duncan was a first responder that day, and he told ABC News he was the one who found Ryland and pulled him to safety.

Once he rushed inside the church, he went through the aisles and "started checking for people's pulses," Duncan said. "That's where Ryland's hand reached out from under his stepmom and grabbed my pant leg. I rolled her over and grabbed him and started running outside with him."

"As soon as we got him outside, his dad [Chris Ward] ran up to me and said, 'They killed my baby.' "And I told his dad, 'No, he's not dead, he's still alive,'" Duncan said. "Unfortunately his wife and two girls were actually gone."

Chris Ward's wife and Ryland's stepmother, Joann Lookingbill Ward, was among the dead, as well as Joann Lookingbill Ward's daughters, Brooke Bryanne Ward, 5, and Emily Garcia, 7.

Ryland was rushed to the hospital and soon the young boy's mother reached out to Duncan, the firefighter said.

"I met with her and talked to her then I was actually able to go to the hospital and see him for the first time," about a week after the shooting, Duncan said.

"He was heavily sedated," Duncan said, going through "surgery after surgery."

Duncan said he continued to visit the little boy at the hospital, including this week.

"He's doing great," Duncan said. "He walked for me for the first time. Of course with my help, but he walked."

Ryland's grandmother, Sandy Ward, told ABC News that Ryland is trying to walk but keeps dragging his left foot and he also has limited use of his hip.

"He's a character," Duncan said. "This little boy has the best fighting spirit I've ever seen out of anybody in my entire life. He's kept me going this whole time. Even when I was giving up ... just thinking about him and being around him makes me smile."

The "fighting spirit" turned 6 while he was in the hospital.

According to University Hospital, Ryland was the facility's final patient from the Sutherland Springs shooting.

"It's just a miracle he survived and is doing as well as he is," Sandy Ward said on Wednesday. "We're just excited to get him to come home."

Today, Ryland was discharged from the hospital and was treated with a special ride home in a firetruck.

Sutherland Springs community members gathered in wait, holding signs including "Welcome home handsome" and "Yay buddy."

"Welcome home!" they screamed as the police escort -- and finally the firetruck carrying Ryland -- arrived in town.

"Just happy the Lord brought him home and he's doing good," one emotional Sutherland Springs resident told ABC San Antonio affiliate KSAT. "Total joy. This is our town, this is our family."

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Firetruck brings boy shot in Texas church massacre home from hospital

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A little boy who was shot in the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church massacre arrived home today -- riding through town on a firetruck -- after more than two months in the hospital. Add Texas Church Shooting as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Texas Church Shooting news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

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Many people who suffered Puerto Rico hurricane Maria will not be getting power till some time in march. Some people do not have anything. There is a lot of murder going on just so people can have the things they need.

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The Right of Entry Form indicates Rodríguez has applied for a professionally installed tarp -- or Blue Roof -- from the US Army Corps of Engineers. These free roofs, which are meant to last 30 days, may not sound like much. They can be everything in post-hurricane Puerto Rico if you're dealing with sun and rain inside your house. Operation Blue Roof is not the only housing program for Maria's victims, but it is one of the main ways a person like Rodríguez can protect his belongings and try to return to some semblance of normalcy.

To qualify, a home must have less than 50% structural damage. Homes with metal or flat roofs, and those made out of concrete, generally are ineligible for the program because of the difficulties of installing tarps on those structures, according to the Army Corps.

Rodríguez's house was approved for a Blue Roof, according to a government database CNN obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. He said he applied on October 25.

Yet, when I visit, he's still waiting.

That's true for tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans, the records show.

When I ask Rodríguez about the yellow paper on the wall -- the prospect of a tarp -- he brushes off delays, citing the crazy magnitude of Maria. Others have it worse, he says.

Then I show him a photo that, for him, changes everything.

I took this image on December 13 in Carolina, about 20 miles north of where Rodríguez lives. The photo shows a warehouse filled with about 20,000 tarp rolls -- each representing at least one house, like his, without a roof. There's another warehouse like this in Ponce, to the south. That one holds 40,000 tarps, according to Mike Feldmann, temporary roofing mission manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, who gave me a tour of the Carolina warehouse.

More than 70,000 people like Rodríguez requested Blue Roofs between the day Hurricane Maria hit and December 18, according to a CNN analysis of Army Corps data.

Yet only about one third - less than 25,000 - had received them by that date, the analysis shows.

The Army Corps' own guidelines say homeowners "should expect work within 14 days of the request." However, following inquiries from CNN, agency officials acknowledge the database used to track the work does not show how long residents have been waiting for tarps.

The Army Corps could look at paper records to determine how long applicants have been put on hold, an agency spokesperson says. But the agency declined to say whether such an assessment has been done. Blue Roof installations, according to the spokesperson, are prioritized by location and other factors, not by the date a person applied for a tarp.

"Our mission is to install temporary roofs on all eligible structures as quickly as possible," Patrick Loch, an agency spokesman, says in an email. "Our priority is to maximize the rate of installations across the entire island, and ensure each installation meets the program quality standards. The number of temporary roofs remaining to be installed, along with their location, is the information we use on a daily basis to drive execution of the program."

As for the room full of tarps?

"That warehouse full of roofs is evidence that we've been able to overcome at least one part of that challenge," which was bringing tarps to the island, says Feldmann, the mission manager. Difficult working conditions in Puerto Rico, including unsafe structures, also contribute to the slowdown, he says. "We've done everything we can to address every challenge when we have discovered it and experienced it. There's always things that you can do better and as we learn about a new challenge we find every opportunity to make it more efficient."

It doesn't seem that way to Rodríguez, who's still waiting for a roof.

"I'm speechless," he says, looking at the image of the warehouse. "The Army is immensely big, and there are many people with many talents who know how to work in situations like this.

"God would cry over this injustice."

Two days before I met Rodríguez, I started driving the route the eye of Hurricane Maria bulldozed across Puerto Rico. I'd already spent weeks reporting on conditions after the storm -- on people desperately searching for clean drinking water; on the likely undercounting of deaths related to Maria and the storm's aftermath. I wanted to see for myself whether life was returning to normal anywhere along Hurricane Maria's disastrous path.

In particular, I wanted to know whether people still were living without shelter.

I already knew that tens of thousands were waiting for Blue Roofs in Puerto Rico. And I knew that contracting issues at the Army Corps had slowed the installation of tarps. The Corps had told me as of December 6 that only 26% of Blue Roofs requested had been installed. I didn't know, however, where the temporary roofs were being installed or how long people were waiting. In the void, I decided to try to follow Hurricane Maria's path across Puerto Rico. I wanted to survey housing conditions overall -- not just the Blue Roof program.

Maria's eye flew about 70 miles -- through plantain fields and stegosaurus-ridged mountains, shanty towns and pastel cities -- in roughly eight hours on September 20.

It would take me about a week in a rented minivan to follow the same route. I set out on December 14. I would hit closed roads and downed bridges. I would see repairs being made but also dozens of houses like Rodríguez's that were shells of their former selves. I would meet a baby born after Maria and, later, the relatives of a woman who died in the aftermath.

I begin in Yabucoa, on the southeast coast.

This is where Maria made landfall at 6:15 a.m. with 155 mph winds.

Three months later, you don't have to search hard for problems.

On the shore, I find a family of five living in a home without a roof.

They have a dog named Snickers and two threadbare horses.

Loose tarps cover about half of the structure, but Luis Oscar Morales Martinez, 36, and his wife stay awake all night when it rains, he says, holding broomsticks against the blue plastic; they are human tent poles, trying to keep water from spilling into the single bedroom where they all sleep. Other rooms are open to the sky entirely, leaving rain and tropical sun to rot and warp the toys of their son and two daughters, ages 9, 10 and 15. The two youngest have all but stopped speaking because of the trauma of the storm, their father tells me. I ask one her name and she motions for my pen. "Jailyn," she writes without a word.

"It's not easy," her father says, resigned.

A neighbor tells me this journey will not be easy, either.

"Right now," he says, "people don't have hope."

I drive from the coast into the mountains.

The interior of Puerto Rico generally is the most damaged and least accessible. The valleys and river deltas near the coast grow into lumpy mountain ridges. My ears pop. I come to a spot marked "Carretera Cerrada." Road Closed. Workers say to keep driving anyway.

It can be difficult to reconcile the conflicting messages coming out of Puerto Rico. A utility pole has fallen on a home; the family decorated it with tinsel for Christmas. There are crews untangling power cables, but about 40% of power customers remain without electricity, according to the Puerto Rican government. Many buildings -- especially the concrete ones -- are standing in Puerto Rico. But that fact only underscores the stark class divisions on the island. Poorer people tend to live in wooden houses, and many of those structures were stripped bare by the 91 mph wind gusts that tore through the highlands here.

What remains, often, is a wooden skeleton.

In a basement lives José Ángel Gómez Ortiz, age 63. The second story of the property was damaged in the storm, and now water pours down through empty light sockets.

Black-colored mold grows on the walls.

Gómez tells me that after living in these conditions he's developed a deep chest cough and a rash on his body. He shows me red splotches on his arms. "It itches," he says.

In a bedroom, stuffed animals are piled on a bed.

Are there children living here?

No, he says, they moved to the continental United States with their mom, his daughter, after the storm.

His brother and sister-in-law moved away, too, he says. After the storm, his brother was living in a school bus because his nearby home had been virtually destroyed, Gómez tells me, walking outside and pointing at the bus downhill. Its nose is demolished. The yellow vehicle's hue is conspicuous against the greens and browns of the surrounding hillside.

Do you want to move tothe mainland?

"I'm not going to leave what I have here just to go somewhere else."

Farther inland, in Comerío, another yellow paper.

This one on the home of Carmen Rivera.

That paper -- which allows workers to install a Blue Roof -- has been there for two months, she says, far longer than the two weeks the Army Corps guidelines suggest. It's hard to say exactly when she requested the tarp because the Army Corps says its own database is unreliable -- and because her yellow form was not filled out completely.

Other forms I saw on the drive were so faded by sun and rain they'd become illegible.

"Unfortunately, we have found that sometimes the yellow forms posted at a residence get wet, the ink bleeds and is eventually no longer visible," says Loch, the agency spokesman. "It was recommended to residents that they post in a visible but protected area and/or place them in a clear plastic binder sleeve."

I first met Rivera in October. She told me then that she'd broken her arm while trying to sweep water out of her living room. It was raining and dark, and water seemed to be everywhere in her home that night. Raindrops rippled across the floor. A cast was on her left arm.

Her home is right on the route the hurricane's eye took across Puerto Rico.

When I see her again, on December 16, her roof is still damaged.

Relatives helped install a tarp over part of the property, but water creeps across the floor and her arm is still in the cast. She's strapped a purple, plastic glove over her hand to try to keep the arm dry. Paperwork shows a doctor did surgery on December 12.

"I'm in a lot of pain," she says, clutching a sling.

She sobs inconsolably, shaking, her eyes bloodshot.

"Please don't forget me."

I post about that encounter on Twitter, where I'm keeping an open journal of sorts, under the hashtag #LaRutaDeMaria. Among those who take an interest: The Army Corps of Engineers.

I tag them in a few posts, and they start writing back, providing stats on the Blue Roof program and tweeting the number -- 1-888-ROOF-BLU -- that people can call to sign up for help.

I don't give the interactions much thought -- until I return to see Rivera.

I double back because my last conversation with her haunted me.

That morning, Rivera is standing on the porch smoking a cigarette, watching the occasional car struggle up the steep incline that leads to her neighborhood.

A professionally installed tarp sits on top of her home -- a blue roof.

She says it was installed on December 17, the day after my visit. Loch, the Army Corps spokesman, calls the timing of the installation a "fantastic coincidence."

Rivera doesn't buy it.

The publicity led them to come, after weeks of waiting, she says.

"It's so frustrating that I had to wait so long. Because of their delay, I fell and broke my arm."

And that's the thing about shelter: The wait truly matters.

Farther into the mountains, in Orocovis, I meet a family that already has a Blue Roof.

The tarp was installed about a month ago, they say. Until then, however, they'd been living in a home where water dripped on them at night and mold inched up the walls.

Karla Zayas, a 23-year-old with big brown eyes, frizzy hair at the temples and rosary beads around her neck, was pregnant when the storm hit. She gave birth to a marshmallow-cheeked son, Sebastian, on November 18, nearly two months after Maria barreled through.

The morning I stop for an interview, the baby is in the hospital with respiratory problems, according to medical records. It's the newborn's second trip to the hospital with those issues, his family tells me. In all, they say, he has spent 10 days in the hospital. Karla's father, Carmelo Zayas, says he was hospitalized for nine days with similar problems. And a 4-year-old child in the house also was hospitalized for five days with respiratory issues, they say.

Medical records do not state specifically whether the wet living conditions contributed to the illness. But Paula Schenck, who directs indoor environments and health programs at the University of Connecticut, says wet and moldy environments can pose "very serious" health risks, including respiratory illnesses. Installing a tarp may not solve the problems, she says in an email. Water-damaged materials may also need to be replaced.

Baby and mom arrive while I'm talking with the rest of the group.

Karla Zayas says she feared for her son's life.

"He's a baby -- a very small baby," she says, "and I was afraid his system was not going to be strong enough to defend himself from conditions like this."

The Blue Roof is nice, says Carmelo Zayas, but it came far too late.

"I do think we got ill because of the delays."

Others have not survived the conditions Maria left.

In Corozal, Pilar Guzmán Ríos died on September 29 without the power she needed to run an oxygen machine and without adequate refrigeration for her insulin, according to family members. Calls to an ambulance didn't yield help because of closed roads and downed communication networks, they say. The woman's sister and brother-in-law, Paula Guzmán and Manuel Morales, are still living nearby in a makeshift shelter, a closed elementary school. They power a light bulb with a car battery and sleep on beds hidden by purple curtains. I met them on a previous trip and decide to return to see how they are doing.

Morales says he and Paula Guzmán -- whose eyes are sunken and who speaks only in a whisper -- could move back into their home if only they had a roof, or even a tarp.

A yellow paper is tacked to the wall of the house, which is just down the street from the shelter. "They left me waiting," Morales says. "These guys said they would come in a week or two. It's been more than one month since (then). It seems like they forgot us."

Morales shows me the home, popping shutters to let out the stench of mildew. A ceiling fan droops like a wilted flower. Images of Mother Mary and Jesus stare blankly across the room.

I ask him where they'll be in three more months, a year.

He seems unable to think in those terms.

When they moved into the shelter, he says, he thought it would be for just a week or two.

Now they're beginning month three.

He wants his family to think he's fine. "But I'm not OK," he tells me.

"There's nothing better than your own home."

Federal Emergency Management Agency offices. Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

Two press officers sit me down across a wide conference table from Justo Hernandez, FEMA's deputy federal coordinating officer here.

I tell him some of what I've seen.

How is it possible so many people don't have their needs met when it comes to housing?

The island poses unique challenges, Hernandez says.

Other hurricanes have devastated parts of Puerto Rico, he says, but Maria hit all of it.

"This one impacted the whole island -- completely," he says. "When we're working with 3.4 million people, we're working with every municipality heavily impacted. We're working with local utilities. We're working with the loss of the whole communications system in the island and the infrastructure was heavily impacted then. That complicates the recovery process."

Hernandez provides a verbal list of some ways FEMA is helping.

The agency has distributed 169,000 tarps to municipalities across Puerto Rico for self-installation, he says on December 18. That's in addition to the Army Corps' Blue Roof program.The number of shelters, which are managed by the Puerto Rican Department of Housing, is down considerably, to 39, with 551 people living in them, he says; others are being transitioned to better housing. FEMA can help pay motel bills for those displaced by the storm, including those who move to the mainland US. There's even a program that would pay to move people there. When we talk, no one has taken advantage of it, though, according to a FEMA spokesman.

They don't want to leave, he says.

I've met people who do want to leave, but who say the process has been too difficult or unclear to them -- or that they were unaware this FEMA program exists.

FEMA trailers are fixtures of hurricane response in the United States.

Hurricane season returns in six months, Hernandez says.

"We're an island. When you have 175 mph winds, that trailer is not going to survive."

He also cites logistical and potentially cost-related problems with this form of housing. Trailers can be driven to states on the mainland, but "here you have to put them on barges."

Delivering temporary trailers to Puerto Rico "is going to be, first of all, inadequate," he says. "It's going to be unsafe for the families because I'm putting them in harm's way. And so we decided to then use other forms of assistance here."

I still don't get it, I tell him. I'm meeting people who, three months later, are living without roofs, or without solid ones. It rains on them at night. How is this happening?

"You can find the people that are living through that," he tells me, referring to unsafe conditions, "but you can also find thousands and thousands and thousands of people that got their money, that got their assistance -- they got their Blue Roof in place. They've got their own tarps in place; (they) went after the mayor to ask for help; (they) called FEMA and maintained contact with FEMA to get the systems that they provide.

"I mean, you can find thousands of cases like that."

That's true, but not for the majority of people who have applied for Blue Roofs. Our analysis of federal data would find only about one third of applicants had received Blue Roofs by December 18. Again, that's about 25,000 installations out of more than 70,000 requests.

Those numbers track with information provided to us by the Army Corps press office.

Hernandez says some responsibility rests with storm victims.

"I can tell you the one thing that I tell every survivor," he says. "'What are you doing to take ownership of your situation? What are you doing to assist us in assisting you? Are you waiting for stuff to happen to you? What is it that you're proactively doing for yourself?'"

Many people without adequate shelter, he says, are squatters. "We still have shelters open," he says. "So there's no reason why they're living in those conditions."

I relay some of these comments to Carmelo Zayas, the man who was hospitalized and whose newborn grandson was hospitalized after weeks of wet conditions.

He bristles at the suggestion survivors are to blame.

"I moved Earth and heaven," he says. "I've done everything possible to get help."

Still, he says, mold keeps growing on the walls.

"After I clean it, it comes right back," he says. "And it's spreading."

Government warehouse. Carolina, Puerto Rico.

Mike Feldmann, from the Army Corps, looks across that sea of 20,000 tarps and tells me that this is a sign that supplies are here and work is happening in Puerto Rico.

Contracting issues and other bureaucratic missteps have plagued the delivery and installation of tarps in Puerto Rico. The Federal Emergency Management Agency in November fired Bronze Star, a Florida company it had hired to deliver tarps to the island, according to the Associated Press,after the company failed to deliver tarps to the island.

That contracting issue did not slow down the work of distributing tarps, Hernandez says.

He says there are enough tarps on the island to meet needs.

Separately, the Army Corps slowed work on the installation of Blue Roofs for at least nine days, a spokesman says, because of a bid dispute over a government contract -- a dispute first reported by CNN. Two attorneys specializing in federal contracts told me there was no compelling reason for the Army Corps to slow its work installing tarps during that dispute, which involved a company, Venegas, claiming that the government had unlawfully given work to a non-Puerto Rican competitor. The Army Corps could have made a simple legal case for continuing work while the dispute was being resolved, they said, especially given the humanitarian emergency in Puerto Rico.

In the end, Venegas got a slice of the contract, and work resumed full-tilt on December 13, says Loch, the Army Corps spokesman. But the Corps has estimated about400 temporary roofs per day went uninstalled during that nine-day period -- so approximately 3,600 roofs in total. The Corps was installing about 500 Blue Roofs per day in mid-December.

"Ideally, these roofs go up the day after the storm hits, but as we have said many times the level of devastation here, the challenges to getting personnel in a position to assess houses, award contracts and get those workers up to speed in terms of installing blue roofs on unique structures has been tremendous," Loch says in an email.

"We continue to increase the number of roofs installed every day, and will continue to do so until every resident eligible for the temporary roofing has a Blue Roof installed."

The Corps' contractors have about 1,500 workers per day installing tarps, he says.

The project's budget is $200 million.

FEMA says it has approved more than $880 million for individual and household assistance.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands are waiting for help from the Army Corps and others.

There's the retired roofer with a physical disability. He'd like to fix his own roof but can't because of his hip. While he waits for assistance, the mattress upstairs has become so saturated with water that touching it releases a virtual flood. He sleeps in the living room. There's no power to run the oxygen machine he needs for nighttime breathing treatments.

Then there's the family in Barranquitas with a 5-year-old boy. His mother's home was destroyed in the storm, and other family members were displaced. They show me the boy's Christmas list for Santa: "I would like a motorcycle and something for construction."

At a shelter in Manatí: George Rivera, 60, says he became so depressed after the storm that he tried to drive his SUV off a cliff in his hometown. He's doing better now, he says, but his wife has cancer and they plan to move to Alabama to be with family, when they find tickets.

Down the street, Luis Rodríguez Ortiz, 47, spend his work days collecting sewage from septic tanks. Little by little, Puerto Rico will return to its old self, he tells me. It won't be fast, but you have to keep working at it. Meanwhile, there's no wall on the back of his house.

In Morovis, a mother and daughter, ages 87 and 58, sleep in the same bed. They've taped a few photos to the plywood wall -- black-and-white images of better times. The ceiling drips at night, they say. They're among the thousands waiting for a Blue Roof. Their neighbor got one, but she tells me it was only half-installed. The workers said they'd be back, she says, but that was two weeks before my visit, and by then they hadn't returned.

Not far from there, a woman lives with her sister because her home doesn't have rafters, much less a roof. When "I feel like I'm losing myself," Carmen Torres says, she lies down on a couch in the only dry spot in her old home and sobs.

For some, it feels Maria never left, like the storm is still pummeling them day after day.

Across the room from Torres, a clock is stopped.

I descend from the mountains toward the northwest coast where the eye of Hurricane Maria left this island on the afternoon of September 20. It's a place of extremes, like much of Puerto Rico. The mountains give way to fertile valleys where cows roam -- and where pharmaceuticals are manufactured. Fast-food restaurants are open; some homes don't have walls.

In Hatillo, just after sunset, I arrive at roughly the spot on the map where Hurricane Maria left the land and coasted into the Atlantic Ocean. It's hard to find the beach at first amid the suburban sprawl - neat concrete homes with symmetrical driveways. It feels like San Diego. I ask directions, and a family points me down the street and around a bend to the beach.

I want to see where the hurricane's path ends.

I spot two headlamps scanning the shoreline.

It's two fishermen. They're trying to catch food for their families.

I sit in the sand to watch.

I think back on the drive, straining to imagine these post-hurricane conditions lingering in such a widespread way in any US state -- Florida to Hawaii. I think about Sebastian, the baby born after the storm, and Pilar, who died in its aftermath; about Carmen with her broken arm, and Héctor saving money for cinder blocks. How many months will it take him to rebuild on his wages? Others have lost jobs because of Maria and have few prospects for regaining them. Puerto Rico was in financial free fall -- the government in bankruptcy -- before the storm.

Now it's anyone's guess what's left.

Congress in October approved a $36.5 billion aid package for natural disasters, including Hurricane Maria. But critics say the response has been too little too late.

"We can't fail to note the dissimilar urgency and priority given to the emergency response in Puerto Rico, compared to the US states affected by hurricanes in recent months," Leilani Farha, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to housing, said in October.

"After a natural disaster, with around 90,000 homes totally destroyed, people are at their most vulnerable. It's the obligation of all levels of government to act to protect them, and to ensure that lives can return to some normality quickly."

The 3.4 million Americans living in Puerto Rico have little political recourse. The island is a United States commonwealth. It's home to citizens who, unlike those on the mainland, cannot vote in general presidential elections and have no voting representative in Congress.

This is a territory in limbo -- neither state nor nation.

A place that's been made to wait.

I stay with the fishermen for an hour before, finally, a bite.

One of them runs to the shore, tugs on the wooden rod.

It's a struggle, but he drops a fish -- big as my shin -- in the beam of the headlamp.

This is a ray-finned fish, he says. Too spiny to eat.

He throws it back into the ocean.

I wait another hour before asking: How long do you stay out here fishing?

As long as it takes, they say.
Postscript: As of January 1, 2018, 30,580 people had received Blue Roofs in Puerto Rico, according to the US Army Corps press office. Yet 45,125 applicants, including Héctor Rodríguez, continue to wait.

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puerto rico: a journey down the path of hurricane maria - cnn

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John D. Sutter, CNN
Data analysis by Sergio Hernandez, CNN
Video by McKenna Ewen and John D. Sutter, CNN

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A journey along the path of Hurricane Maria

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The Right of Entry Form indicates Rodríguez has applied for a professionally installed tarp -- or Blue Roof -- from the US Army Corps of Engineers. These free roofs, which are meant to last 30 days, may not sound like much. They can be everything in post-hurricane Puerto Rico if you're dealing with sun and rain inside your house.

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Multiple shots were fired at a St. Louis Missouri home. One bullet tore through a wall and hit an 8 year old girl in the leg while she was sleeping. The police have no suspects as in who did this.

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8-year-old Missouri girl shot while sleeping

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Police responding to the 3:43 a.m. shooting found evidence multiple shots were fired at the north St. Louis County home

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Trump denies making 's___hole countries' comment. President Donald Trump on Friday denied describing certain nations as "s___hole countries" during a meeting in which he rejected a bipartisan deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!" Trump tweeted.

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Someone called 911 to report a charred bullet-riddled body of a man with a snake like tattoo on his left hand. The next day, two more bodies were found dead with both their hands and feet bound in Bayamon, which is a working class city southwest from the capital of Puerto Rico. Another man was shot to death before dawn in nearby Vega Baja while trying to stop thieves from stealing his generator. 32 people were slain in the first 11 days of the year, which is double the amount from last year. If the surge proves to be more than just a temporary blip, January could be the most homicidal month on the island in at least two years. No arrests have been made this year over the 32 killings.

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Interested in Hurricanes?

Add Hurricanes as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Hurricanes news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

Before the sun rose on the first day of 2018, someone called 911 to report the charred, bullet-riddled body of a man with a snake-like tattoo on his left hand, lying beside a road in the Puerto Rican town of Vega Baja.

The next day, two men were found dead with their feet and hands bound in Bayamon, a working-class city southwest of the capital. Another man was shot to death before dawn in nearby Vega Baja while trying to stop thieves from stealing his generator.

Thirty-two people have been slain in Puerto Rico in the first 11 days of the year, double the number killed over the same period in 2017. If the surge proves to be more than just a temporary blip, January could be the most homicidal month on the island in at least two years, adding a dangerous new element to the island's recovery from Hurricane Maria, its worst disaster in decades.

While the number of homicides did not immediately spike in the weeks after the hurricane struck on Sept. 20, police and independent experts say many killings appear at least partly related to its aftereffects.

The storm has plunged much of the island into darkness, increased economic hardship and contributed to a sickout by police, all fueling lawlessness. What's more, officials say a turf war has broken out among drug gangs looking to grab territory after the storm's disruption.

"Hurricanes affect everyone, including criminals," said criminologist Jose Raul Cepeda.

Already bankrupt, the island's overwhelmed government has fallen behind with millions of dollars in overtime payments owed to police officers, who have begun calling in sick in big numbers to protest. The sickout has taken about 2,000 police off the street each day in a territory that has 13,600 officers. It has forced more than a dozen police stations to close for several hours to a couple of days during the holiday period because of a lack of officers. No arrests have been made in the 32 killings this year.

Maria, which hit as a Category 4 storm, destroyed much of the island's electrical grid. For those police on duty, the streets are darker and more dangerous because power has been restored to only 60 percent of customers in the U.S. territory. Drug gangs are fighting to re-establish territory they lost in the disruption from Maria, which pushed thousands from their homes and left entire neighborhoods uninhabitable for weeks.

Police Chief Michelle Hernandez resigned Monday after only a year on the job, and local and federal authorities are rushing from meeting to meeting to debate how to best protect 3.3 million Puerto Ricans, especially those still living in the dark.

"This has been devastating," said Ramon Santiago, a retiree who lives less than a block from where three bodies were discovered Sunday near a basketball court. "You can't sleep peacefully in so much darkness."

Puerto Rico's homicide rate is roughly 20 killings per 100,000 residents, compared with 3.7 per 100,000 residents on the U.S. mainland. In the last two years, Puerto Rico has seen an average of 56 homicides a month, a rate that held through December. Then after New Year's, the killings started accelerating.

A man was shot Jan. 3 by a security guard while trying to rob a bakery. Two double homicides were reported Jan. 8 - two men found shot to death in a car near an upscale resort on the north coast and two other men discovered sprawled on the street near a public housing complex on the west coast. Five killings alone were reported Monday, in addition to three people wounded by gunfire during a shootout that night in the parking lot of a strip mall in Bayamon. This week, police say, the son of a former judge was killed after trying to write down the license plate number of a car whose occupants were firing a gun.

"The lack of police is increasing Puerto Rico's safety issues," said legislator Denis Marquez, who was mugged at gunpoint last month. "Everybody is feeling that insecurity."

Besides policing and getting the lights back on, he said, the government needs to address long-standing issues such as social inequality on an island with a 10 percent unemployment rate, where nearly 45 percent of its inhabitants lived in poverty before the hurricane.

More immediately, the post-storm conditions have fueled a deadly struggle over drug gang territory, said Fernando Soler, vice president of a police officers' advocacy group.

"There's a war over the control for drugs," he told The Associated Press. "They are taking advantage of all the situations occurring in Puerto Rico. There's no power and they believe there's a lack of police officers. ... Criminals are taking care of business that was pending before the hurricane."

Inspector Elexis Torres heads a unit that is investigating eight homicides in a jurisdiction that includes the working-class city of Carolina near Puerto Rico's north coast, bordering the island's main airport.

One of Puerto Rico's largest cities with nearly 160,000 people, Carolina had the triple homicide reported Sunday; a motel employee and a friend were found slain Tuesday in neighboring Trujillo Alto. Like nearly all the killings this year, they involve men in their 20s who were shot to death. Torres said he suspects both cases are drug related.

He worries the number of killings will only increase as criminal gangs enter into cycles of revenge.

"Those victims likely belonged to some organization," Torres said of the triple homicide. "This can have consequences."

Cepeda, the criminologist, said drug traffickers have been entering rival territories to increase sales and recover losses after the storm disrupted their business.

Hurricane Maria caused an estimated $95 billion in damage, with 30,000-plus jobs lost in an economy that was already struggling from an 11-year-old recession.

The last time Puerto Rico saw a spike in violent crime was in 2011, when a record 1,136 killings were reported on an island of nearly 4 million people. Puerto Rico had seen a drop in killings, to 700 in 2016 and 679 last year.

Hector Pesquera, secretary of the newly created Department of Public Safety, met this week with top police officials and federal authorities.

"We're in a process of analysis and of committed work to fight criminality in Puerto Rico," he said.

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Danica Coto on Twitter: https://twitter.com/danicacoto

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Puerto Rico fears post-Maria murder surge: 11 days, 32 slain

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Before the sun rose on the first day of 2018, someone called 911 to report the charred, bullet-riddled body of a man with a snake-like tattoo on his left hand, lying beside a road in the Puerto Rican town of Vega Baja. The next day, two men were found dead with their feet and hands bound in...

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A brand new truck stuck in mud after illegal four wheeling. A group of guys testing out a new four wheel drive Chevy Silverado over a frozen pond and got stuck in Chouteau Island. Then the truck owner rented a backhoe to try to get the truck out but got it stuck. Both vehicles remained stuck under 2-3 feet deep of permafrost that will be 6-7 feet under water in the up coming spring.

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It's about as stuck as stuck can be: a couple of guys testing out a new four-wheel drive Chevy drove over a frozen pond and ended up stuck in sand, ice, and mud on Chouteau Island, just north of Interstate 270 in Madison County, Illinois.

Things got even worse.

"When the lake goes dry in the winter, there's a lot of temptation for guys to think they can just come out here and go four-wheeling," said Austin Opp of the Chain of Rocks Recreation Corp.

The group owns the property and uses it for water skiing practice.

"This is the worst I've ever seen out here. Nobody's usually dumb enough to try to go out on the lake and he did," Opp said.

The truck's owner told Fox2/News 11 a friend was driving just before sunrise on New Year's Day; they thought the frozen pond was a frozen field.

"It's permafrost," Opp said. "It was frozen hard enough that it held him up for a while then it just collapsed in, which what I'd expect him to do."

The owner yelled from the passenger seat for his friend to turn back, he said. They were nearly off of the pond when the ice started giving way. The truck's owner then rented a backhoe to try to fish out his truck. As he got close, an unseen pocket of ice, sand, and mud gave way and down went the backhoe, he said.

Both vehicles remained frozen stuck some two to three feet deep in a spot that will be six to seven feet underwater come spring.
READ MORE ON THIS STORY FROM FOX 2 NOW ST. LOUIS

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Brand new truck stuck, frozen in mud after Illegal four-wheeling

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It's about as stuck as stuck can be: a couple of guys testing out a new four-wheel drive Chevy drove over a frozen pond and ended up stuck in sand, ice, and mud on Chouteau Island, just north of Interstate 270 in Madison County, Illinois. Things got even worse.

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When Alabama defeated Georgia for the college football championship Monday night, it did so despite the fact that a Crimson Tide coach's playbook had been stolen.

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When Alabama defeated Georgia for the college football championship Monday night, it did so despite the fact that a Crimson Tide coach's playbook had been stolen.

Alabama defensive line coach Karl Dunbar realized Saturday -- two days before the big game -- that his backpack, containing two cell phones, a passport, laptop, cash and the playbook, was missing from a conference room in the team's Atlanta hotel, FOX 10 reported.

Some of the items were later found in a bathroom on the third floor of the hotel, but the playbook was nowhere to be found, the station reported, citing information from police.

As of early Friday, the book still hadn't been recovered. But it turns out that Alabama still managed to beat Georgia anyway, in a thrilling, come-from-behind overtime victory.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban is now 11-0 when competing against teams coached by his former assistants, according to ESPN, with Georgia head coach Kirby Smart being the most recent victim.

Alabama defeated Georgia 26-23, for its 12th national title and fifth since 2009.

Benjamin Brown is a reporter for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @bdbrown473.

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Alabama won title game despite theft of coach's playbook, report says

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When Alabama defeated Georgia for the college football championship Monday night, it did so despite the fact that a Crimson Tide coach's playbook had been stolen. Alabama defensive line coach Karl Dunbar realized Saturday -- two days before the big game -- that his backpack, containing two cell phones, a passport, laptop, cash and the playbook, was missing from a conference room in the team's Atlanta hotel, FOX 10 reported.

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US President Donald Trump won't be paying a visit to London to open his country's billiondollar embassy, he tweeted Thursday.

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US President says he won't visit London for ribbon-cutting of new embassy

Trump cites disapproval with embassy deal, but he would have faced considerable protests

US President Donald Trump won't be paying a visit to London to open his country's billion-dollar embassy, he tweeted Thursday.

The trip, which would have been Trump's first to the UK as president, had not been officially announced but was expected next month.

In the tweet, Trump blames his predecessor, former president Barack Obama, for the decision to sell the existing embassy, which he describes as "the best located and finest" in the city, for "'peanuts.'"

"Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts,' only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" the full tweet reads.

The decision to move the embassy from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms was made in 2008 under George W. Bush, not Obama. It would have been impossible to retrofit the aging concrete building with the security measures needed, officials said at the time.

Options examined

"We looked at all our options, including renovation of our current building on Grosvenor Square," then-Ambassador Robert Tuttle said.

"In the end, we realized that the goal of a modern, secure and environmentally sustainable embassy could best be met by constructing a new facility."

Ground was broken at the new site, in Nine Elms, in November 2013. Philadelphia-based architects KieranTimberlake won the tender to design the new building, according to the US embassy website.

The existing complex in Grosvenor Square has been sold to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, which will convert it into a hotel.

UK officials, based in London, said they were initially told to plan for a visit from Trump to the UK at the end of February. But word came from Washington in recent days that the trip was likely off.

The officials declined to say why, and said the decision was made by the Americans.

Unpopular leader likely to be met with protest

Large protests are expected to accompany any presidential visit to the British capital, where Trump is deeply unpopular.

A UK official said on Friday the invitation to Trump for a state visit, first extended by British Prime Minister Theresa May during her visit to the US early in Trump's presidency, still stands: "The invitation for a State Visit has been extended and accepted," the official said.

The official drew a distinction between the state visit, which would include a visit with Queen Elizabeth II and royal trappings like a horse parade, and a working visit, that would include a meeting with May and other diplomatic formalities like opening the embassy.

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband replied to Trump's tweet shortly after it was posted, challenging the assertion that it was Trump's dissatisfaction with the deal that had derailed the visit.

"Nope it's because nobody wanted you to come," Miliband wrote in a reply to the US leader's tweet. "And you got the message."

Nope it's because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message. https://t.co/9xV7bFZQgL
- Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) January 12, 2018

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a vocal critic of Trump, said Friday that the President "got the message from the many Londoners who love America and Americans but find his policies and action the polar opposite of our city's values."

In November last year, Khan slammed Trump for retweeting anti-Muslim propaganda from a British far-right party, and suggested May shouldn't welcome Trump into their country for a state visit.

Khan, who is Muslim, called Britain First, the far-right party Trump retweeted, "a vile, extremist group that exists solely to sow division and hatred in our country."

He added that the videos make it "increasingly clear that any official visit at all from President Trump to Britain would not be welcomed."

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international relations and national security

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state departments and diplomatic services

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Trump cancels London visit over 'bad' embassy deal | CNN Politics

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See More Videos US President says he won't visit London for ribbon-cutting of new embassy Trump cites disapproval with embassy deal, but he would have faced considerable protests US President Donald Trump won't be paying a visit to London to open his country's billion-dollar embassy, he tweeted Thursday.

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Rob Lowe slams the actress Bella Thorne who tweeted after the mudslides that she would be missing her boyfriends concert due to the roads shutting down, Lowe responds on Instagram by saying "This attitude is why people hate celebrities/Hollywood. Bella, I'm sorry you were inconvenienced. We will try to move our dead quicker," Due to the Mudslides seventeen people ages 3 to 89 were confirmed dead. Bella claims she wasn't caught up on the news at the time of her tweet which was later deleted.

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Actor Rob Lowe took to Instagram on Thursday to slam actress Bella Thorne, who complained on Twitter that the road closures in Santa Barbara, Calif., forced her to miss her boyfriend's concert performance.

"This attitude is why people hate celebrities/Hollywood. Bella, I'm sorry you were inconvenienced. We will try to move out our dead quicker," Lowe posted.

More than two full days after mudslides ravaged the coastal town of Montecito, the search for the missing became an increasingly desperate exercise Thursday, with growing doubts about whether anyone would be found alive.

Seventeen people from ages 3 to 89 were confirmed dead, and more than 40 others were unaccounted for.

"In disaster circumstances there have been many miraculous stories lasting many days and we certainly are searching for a miracle right now," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. He noted that some people had been rescued Thursday.

Thorne's tweet read, "F-k u 101 so santa Barbra (sic). I'm missing my boyfriends (sic) first date on his tour."

The 20-year-old, who got her big break on Disney Channel's "Shake it Up," has since deleted the tweet and on Thursday tweeted, "F-k just caught up on some news had no idea why 101 was shut down...get home to your family safe."

Santa Barbara County authorities offered wildly fluctuating numbers of the missing throughout the day. A spokeswoman early in the day sent a shudder through the community when she said the number of people unaccounted for had surged from 16 to 48. Within an hour, they said they had made a clerical error and the actual number of missing was eight.

"How does that happen?" resident David Weinert asked. "That's a crazy mistake to make."

Later in the day, however, the sheriff said the number was at 43, combining missing persons reports filed with law enforcement and also inquiries from people who hadn't been able to contact family members or friends.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Edmund DeMarche is a news editor for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EDeMarche.

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Rob Lowe slams Bella Thorne over tweet after Santa Barbara mudslides

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Actor Rob Lowe took to Instagram on Thursday to slam actress Bella Thorne, who complained on Twitter that the road closures in Santa Barbara, Calif., forced her to miss her boyfriend's concert performance. "This attitude is why people hate celebrities/Hollywood. Bella, I'm sorry you were inconvenienced.

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California man confesses to 1993 murder in tearful TV interview; police arrest three.

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In a riveting television moment this week, a California man shed tears and claimed that he murdered a teenager in Northern California nearly 25 years ago.

Brian Keith Hawkins, 44, walked into the KRCR-TV station in Redding, Calif., and said he wanted to confess to the 1993 killing of Frank McAlister, the outlet reported. Hawkins said his newfound faith in God led him to seek forgiveness.

The station agreed to the interview, but stated it could not air it until after he turned himself in and police corroborated the confession.

"I know the wrong can't be changed but this is the closest I can come to doing the right thing," Hawkins told the station.

Hawkins named two accomplices: siblings Curtis Culver, 45, and Shanna Culver, 46.

Nearly 25 years ago, they set up a phony drug deal in Shingletown, Calif., to rob McAlister of money he brought to buy methamphetamine, Redding Police said in a news release. They robbed him, and Hawkins and Curtis Culver stabbed him to death, leaving his body in the woods and dumping his car in a Costco parking lot, according to police.

McAlister's family had reported him missing, but his remains would not be found until the following year by a hiker in Shingletown, about 29 miles east of Redding.

McAlister's grandmother, Avis Rice of Anderson, told the Redding Searchlight that she and her family members were stunned to learn of the arrests so long after the murder.

"It is such a shock to us," she told the paper.

Hawkins and the Culver siblings were arrested and were being held in the Shasta County jail.

This was the Redding Police Department's first big break in the two-decades-old cold case.

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California man confesses to 1993 murder in tearful TV interview; police arrest three

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In a riveting television moment this week, a California man shed tears and claimed that he murdered a teenager in Northern California nearly 25 years ago. Brian Keith Hawkins, 44, walked into the KRCR-TV station in Redding, Calif., and said he wanted to confess to the 1993 killing of Frank McAlister, the outlet reported.

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Walmart confirmed on Thursday, that they will be closing 10% of its sam's clubs and will be boosting the salary of Walmart and handing out bonuses

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facevook is changing its news feed.

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Facebook Inc. is considering changing how it prioritizes news stories in users' feeds to give better placement to media outlets deemed more trustworthy, as the company continues efforts to limit the exposure of false news, people familiar with the matter said.

Under its new approach, Facebook would evaluate parameters such as public polling about news outlets, and whether readers are willing to pay for news from particular publishers. Such variables would inform its algorithm that determines which publishers' posts are pushed higher in the feed, one of the people said.

Such a move would thrust Facebook into an even more active role in deciding what content is acceptable on its site. The company hasn't decided whether to proceed with the shift, and it may choose not to do so.

It is also considering other changes to the news feed, some of which it could announce as early as Thursday. The company plans to change how it handles video, by giving priority to those that users engage with and playing down those that generate views by automatically playing when seen in a person's feed.

Facebook is also looking to double down on a strategy of promoting content shared by friends and family over posts published by news outlets, other people familiar with the situation said. One of the goals would be to encourage more conversation among Facebook users. There is some consternation among publishers that this strategy could lead to a significant reduction in traffic referred from Facebook over time.
Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.

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Facebook considers major news feed changes

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Facebook Inc. is considering changing how it prioritizes news stories in users' feeds to give better placement to media outlets deemed more trustworthy, as the company continues efforts to limit the exposure of false news, people familiar with the matter said.