(ST.LOUIS) — Ben, the Saint Louis Zoo’s resident Andean Bear, has had a busy February.
On Thursday, the 4-year-old bear escaped his habitat around 1 p.m. to wander the zoo for about 50 minutes.
While he explored the part of the zoo typically occupied by guests, staff members engaged the zoo’s emergency response protocol, and guests sheltered at various indoor facilities. The zoo reported no injuries during the incident, and Ben is now safely back in his enclosure.
The Saint Louis Zoo notes that Andean bears use their strong calls to be skilled climbers, able to reach the top of trees in rain forests or reach elevations or 14,000 feet in rocky terrain. They often eat, sleep, and raise young in tree nests.
“At four years old, we know Ben is young and adventurous,” the Saint Louis Zoo wrote in a social media post.
According to the zoo’s officials, the Thursday incident marked the second time Ben escaped his enclosure.
On Feb. 7, Ben “meddled” with the steel mesh in his habitat “in just the right spot,” according to the zoo. His fiddling with the mesh caused a cable to fail, allowing him to escape again.
Ben’s exhibit is housed in the southeast section of the zoo neighboring capybaras and giant anteaters.
To prevent a similar incident, Zoo officials reinforced the outdoor habitat with steel clips rated at 450 pounds; however, Ben could still outdo the reinforced hardware in his Thursday escape.
According to the Smithsonian, Andean bears can grow to 6 feet, with males weighing up to 340 pounds. The only native bear to South America, Andean bears are voracious foragers of berries and flowers, though they also eat small animals like rabbits and birds. Near humans, they have tended to raid cornfields (the Saint Louis Zoo does not have a cornfield).
Ben’s escape happened in the afternoon, though his species prefers to rest during the daytime, often sleeping in secluded tree cavities or dens, according to the Smithsonian.
The Saint Louis Zoo is now working with the Bear Taxon Advisory Group and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to determine how to prevent Ben from escaping a third time.
(NEW YORK) — States across the country are considering bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
At least six states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, South Dakota, and Utah — have passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority, which is the threshold for legal adulthood.
The laws in Alabama and Arkansas are temporarily blocked, as they’re being battled out in courts.
In at least 25 other states, local legislatures are considering or have introduced bills that would similarly restrict this kind of medical care for trans youth.
The vast majority of bans also target people under the age of legal majority, which for most of the United States is the age of 18. At least three of these states are targeting people up to the ages of 21 and 26.
Several of the legislative efforts criminalize gender-affirming procedures.
These bills are just some of the 321 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced or debated in 2023 reported by the ACLU, which surpasses the record 315 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2022, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
91% of last year’s anti-LGBTQ efforts failed, the HRC reports.
In other states, like Alaska, Illinois, Minnesota and California, legislators have made strides in protecting access to care for transgender people. For example, in Alaska, gender-affirming care is covered under Medicaid.
What is gender-affirming care?
Gender-affirming care, refers to social affirmation, puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical procedures, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Social affirmation refers to the adoption of a name, hairstyles, clothing, pronouns and restroom use that aligns with someone’s gender identity, according to the HHS.
Puberty blockers, taken during puberty, use hormones to pause pubertal development. Puberty blockers are reversible, the HHS says.
Hormone therapy refers to testosterone hormones for trans boys and estrogen for trans girls taken in early adolescence onward. These injections are partially reversible, according to the HHS.
Surgeries, according to the HHS, are typically reserved for adults and rarely for adolescents, who may be eligible on a case-by-case basis.
Studies, including research in JAMA Surgery, have shown that gender-affirming care can be life-saving for transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, promoting positive mental and physical health and well-being.
Several major national medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association, say that gender-affirming care is safe and effective. Some, like the American Medical Association, deem it “medically necessary.”
Supporters of the bans argue that transgender people should wait until they are older before making decisions about these treatments and their bodies.
When signing the bill, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said: “We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life.
She continued, “Instead, let us all focus on helping them to properly develop into the adults God intended them to be.”
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — It’s been more than three weeks since the Norfolk Southern Railway train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, leaking dangerous chemicals into the air, soil and water.
Crews are continuing cleanup of the area where hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, ethyl acrylate and isobutylene may have escaped into the environment — chemicals that are considered to be very toxic, possibly even carcinogenic with high exposures.
The most recent statement from the Environmental Protection Agency on the Ohio train derailment says they have not detected any levels of health concern in the air and they continue to investigate what impact the spill had on surface and ground water, including drinking water. Nearby community members were evacuated during a controlled burn of the chemicals and allowed to return when deemed safe.
While it’s unknown what residents were exposed to, and in what quantities, doctors told ABC News vulnerable groups — including pregnant women and children — could especially be harmed.
Chemical exposure may affect health of pregnant women
“When we think about pregnant individuals who are exposed to anything, we want to think about the pregnant person themselves first,” Dr. Kathryn Gray, an attending physician in maternal-fetal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts, told ABC News. “So, you would want to proceed with an evaluation just like you would have any other adult who has the exposure.”
She continued, “I think in this case, there were a lot of reports of respiratory issues, eye and skin irritation and so addressing those symptoms and any other symptoms that patients are having.”
There is currently no evidence that exposure to any of these chemicals are linked to problems with growth, development or survival of the fetus in utero.
These chemicals, however, have been known to cause symptoms including drowsiness, lethargy, headaches and nausea.
In one case, vinyl chloride, a colorless gas that burns easily, is associated with an increased risk of several cancers including brain, liver and lung cancers as well as lymphoma and leukemia, according to the National Cancer Institute.
As a report from the U.K. stated, “If the exposure to vinyl chloride causes the mother to become unwell this may affect the health of the unborn child.”
Children’s anatomy may worsen exposure symptoms
Dr. Fred Henretig, a senior toxicologist at the poison control center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News the amount of chemicals children are breathing in or ingesting may determine how hazardous something is.
“The dose makes the poison and so, if there’s just a little bit in the air that children are breathing, then the exposure is very short-lived,” he said. “I would think that their risk of developing that kind of chronic disease as a result of that would be very, very slight.”
He continued, “But I certainly understand the concern of families who have a bad smell in their neighborhood and who are concerned about water and air contamination, whether it gets into their food sources, and so on.”
One of those concerned mothers is 26-year-old Kasie Beal. She, her husband Nate and their now 2-month-old son Luke fled their home in East Palestine the night of the train derailment to her mother’s house about 14 to 15 miles away.
Beal said she refuses to bring her son back to East Palestine. She and her husband have returned to get clothes and other things.
“Any time we’re in our house for longer than, say, 10 minutes, our chests are heavy, we get a headache. Nate has said that his nostrils burn,” Beal told ABC News.
Henretig said the effects of most hazardous chemicals are parallel in young children and adults.
Children, however, might be more affected by certain chemicals because of their smaller size and behaviors,
For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children have thinner skin and more skin per pound of body weight than adults so if a chemical is splashed on them, their skin might absorb more or it could chemically burn a higher percent surface area of skin.
Children also breathe in more air per pound of body weight than adults so they could breathe in a higher proportion of noxious air and their smaller airways might exacerbate the issue.
“Young kids also live closer to the ground and if the gas is heavier than air, the concentration will be greater at two feet above ground than six feet above ground,” Henretig said. “And vinyl chloride is a perfect example of a gas that’s heavier than air, so that could increase their proportionate exposure.”
Children are also more likely to play outside or on the ground and put things in their mouth that could increase their risk of exposure to soil toxins if present, according to the CDC.
Beal said she’s worried to use the water in her home to bathe her son. She has friends who live 25 minutes away who said they had rashes after taking a shower.
Her son’s pediatrician told her to document anything health-wise in case it’s related to the train derailment.
“Even if you think it’s not related to the train derailment, it very well could be,” she said.
Norfolk Southern has been offering $1,000 “inconvenience” checks to residents but Beal said she’s still not ready to return home.
“They’re handing out these $1,000 inconvenience checks but what happened was not an inconvenience,” Beal said. “Spilling water on the counter or the line being too long at Starbucks, that’s an inconvenience. Your whole life being flipped upside down is not an inconvenience.”
She continued, “There’s no amount of money that’s going to fix that. None. I go home and I can’t feel safe. I don’t want to get sick when I go to my house. That’s my home. That’s where I live. That’s where my kid was gonna grow up.”
(STAGECOACH, Nev.) — Five people are dead, including a patient and medical personnel, after a Care Flight plane crashed late Friday in Nevada.
The incident occurred at approximately 9:15 p.m. when the Lyon County Dispatch Center began receiving multiple calls regarding a possible plane crash near Stagecoach, Nevada — about 45 miles east of Reno, according to a statement from the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.
Care Flight, a service of REMSA Health, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, and Guardian Flight, headquartered in Utah, confirmed in a statement following the crash that a PC 12 fixed wing aircraft, tail number N273SM, went off radar near Stagecoach, Nevada.
“We are heartbroken to report that we have now received confirmation from Central Lyon County Fire Department that none of the five people on board survived,” read the statement from Care Flight. “The five people on board were a pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and a patient’s family member. We are in the process of notifying their family members.”
Lyon County deputies, Central Lyon County fire officials, Lyon County Search and Rescue and Douglas County Search and Rescue all responded to the scene of the accident to search the area following the crash.
“The Central Lyon Fire Department and Lyon County Sheriff’s Department are coordinating with the National Transportation Safety Board to determine the cause of the crash which is under investigation,” Care Flight said in a statement.
The aircraft was located at approximately 11:15 p.m. but no survivors were found, Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said.
“As is Guardian and Care Flight’s safety process in these situations, we are in a passive stand down for all Guardian and Care Flight flights across the company,” said Care Flight. “We will work with each of our operations to ascertain when they are able to return to service … Our immediate focus is helping our team members and families, as well as the responding agencies.”
This is still an ongoing incident and investigation and authorities said that more information about the crash will be released as it becomes available.
(SAN ANTONIO, Texas) — An elderly man was killed and a woman critically injured in a “horrific” dog attack in Texas on Friday, authorities said.
The incident occurred around 1:45 p.m. local time in a residential area of San Antonio.
Responding firefighters had to fend off the dogs with pickaxes and pipe poles, according to San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood, who called their actions “heroic.”
“Horrific scene — horrific for the people that experienced this and, again, horrific for our firefighters that were a part of this, basically, a rescue to save themselves and to save these people,” Hood said.
An approximately 80-year-old man and a woman both believed to be visiting the area were mauled in the attack, which occurred on the sidewalk, Hood said. They were both transported to a local hospital. The man died due to his injuries, while the woman remains in critical condition, Hood said.
Another individual was transported to a hospital with a bite to the hand, Hood said. A fire captain was also bit in the leg while responding to the attack, he said.
Two dogs determined to be involved in the attack and a third from the same household that was unrestrained and outside the property were taken into custody, according to Shannon Sims, director of San Antonio Animal Care Services.
The dogs — American Staffordshire terriers — will be placed in quarantine kennels “for the foreseeable future” and remain with Animal Care Services throughout the investigation into the deadly attack, Sims said.
The investigation is in the preliminary stage and it is too early to determine what, if any, charges may be filed, authorities said.
The animals were previously involved in an incident in 2021 that resulted in mild bites, Sims said. The dogs were returned after they finished quarantine and the owner paid reclaim fees, he said. An affidavit was not filed by a victim and witness and “therefore we could not move forward and a dangerous dog designation,” he said.
Neighbors have also called the animal shelter to report dogs at the property that were estray and neglected, Sims said.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The Moscow, Idaho, house where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death will be demolished, according to the university president.
“This is a healing step” in the wake of a “crime that shook our community,” president Scott Green said in a letter to students and employees on Friday.
“We are evaluating options where students may be involved in the future development of the property,” Green added.
Roommates Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were killed in their off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Two roommates survived the crime, which garnered national interest.
After a six-week search for a suspect, 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30. Kohberger was a Ph.D. graduate student at nearby Washington State University at the time.
Green said a memorial, including a garden, will be designed on the university’s campus in honor of the slain students. The exact location hasn’t been decided, Green said.
“The garden will also be a place of remembrance of other students we have lost and a place of healing for those left behind,” Green said.
“We will never forget Xana, Ethan, Madison and Kaylee, and I will do everything in my power to protect their dignity and respect their memory,” Green added.
Kohberger, who is in custody in Idaho, has not entered a plea.
(NEW YORK) — A 2-year-old Brooksville, Florida, boy has been found alive in the woods about 24 hours after he went missing, authorities said.
Joshua “JJ” Rowland was found Friday morning by a volunteer searcher, Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said at a news conference. The sheriff’s announcement was met with cheers from journalists.
JJ’s condition was not immediately clear, but the sheriff’s office said he is “doing well, considering he has been out in the elements all night.”
JJ went missing on Thursday morning. It’s believed he left his home while his parents were asleep, the sheriff’s office said.
Helicopters searched overnight, and over 500 volunteers turned out Friday morning to help law enforcement look for the toddler, according to the sheriff’s office.
JJ was found in the woods “quite a ways away from home,” Nienhuis said.
Volunteer Roy Link, who located JJ, said he said a prayer about 10 minutes before finding the 2-year-old. The sheriff called Link “man of the year” and called JJ’s rescue a “true miracle.”
“I was hoping and praying for a miracle,” the sheriff told reporters. “I think a lot of people were praying — and prayer works.”
(NEW YORK) — Amid a recent series of headline-making near misses involving commercial planes and an impending federal review of the nation’s aerospace system, data from the Federal Aviation Administration shows the number of the most serious close calls at U.S. airports has actually been decreasing even as overall incidents have risen.
Last year, there were at least 1,633 runway incursions at U.S. airports — which the agency defines as any occurrence at an airport in which an aircraft, vehicle or person is incorrectly on the protected areas designated for landing and takeoff.
The number of runway incursions in 2022, including general aviation and commercial aircraft, is up from the 1,397 incursions reported a decade prior, in 2012, and the 987 reported in 2002.
But the most serious incursions in which a collision was “narrowly avoided” or in which “there is significant potential for a collision” have decreased over the past 20 years, according to the FAA.
In 2022, there were 18 serious runway incursions in the U.S., agency data shows. That number is up from a low of five reported in 2010 but down from a high of 32 reported in 2007.
While the numbers are small compared to the more than 45,000 flights that take off across the country each day, experts say it’s important to keep working to bring the incidents down.
“Aviation safety has to be premised on the idea that we don’t want any negatives at all,” ABC News contributor and former commercial pilot John Nance said in an interview. “We can’t accept a small number per year and just say, ‘Well, that’s the cost of doing business.’ We have to believe we can get to 0 and I think this is one of those areas where we have to redouble our efforts.”
In a Jan. 13 close call at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, an American Airlines flight crossed a runway without clearance from air traffic control, causing a Delta Air Lines plane to abort its takeoff from that runway, government officials said. The planes came within 1,400 feet of each other, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Air traffic controllers at the airport were notified of the potential catastrophe through technology that provides visual and audible alerting of traffic conflicts and potential collisions, according to the FAA — technology that is currently in place at 35 major airports across the country.
The tech was not in place at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin, Texas, where earlier this month a close call occurred after a FedEx cargo plane and a Southwest Airlines flight came within 100 feet of each other, the FAA has said.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy praised the FedEx crew, telling ABC News, “It could have been catastrophic if not for certain actions, including the actions of the FedEx crew.”
The FAA currently does not have plans to install the alert technology at more airports across the country. The funding for the technology, called ASDE-X, comes from the FAA’s Facilities and Equipment Actual Appropriations budget, which has remained stagnant in recent years.
The incidents in Austin and New York City are still under investigation by the FAA and NTSB.
The FAA’s acting administrator, Billy Nolen, announced last week that the agency would establish a safety review team to examine the nation’s aerospace system — saying the group will look at structure, culture, systems and integration of safety efforts.
“We are experiencing the safest period in aviation history, but we cannot take this for granted,” Nolen said in a hearing on Capitol Hill. “Recent events remind us that we must not become complacent. Now is the time to stare into the data and ask hard questions.”
The last fatal crash involving a commercial plane in the U.S. occurred in 2009, when Colgan Air 3407 crashed in New York state killing all 49 passengers and crew. The last death on a commercial plane occurred in 2018, on Southwest Airlines 1380, after an engine cowling broke and damaged an aircraft window, causing a passenger to be partially ejected from the aircraft.
In this screen grab from a video, law enforcement officers are shown at the scene of a shooting in Philadelphia, Feb. 23, 2023. — WPVI
(PHILADELPHIA) — Seven people were shot, six of them children, in a shooting that took place at a schoolyard in Philadelphia Thursday evening, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.
Police found multiple shooting victims at a schoolyard of the James G. Blaine School, located in Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion section, at about 5:52 p.m. Thursday. Authorities then transported six people to area hospitals, five of them children, and one being a 31-year-old woman who was shot twice and is in stable condition.
A 2-year-old girl, 13-year-old boy, 15-year-old boy, and two 16-year-old boys were shot at the schoolyard. All are in stable condition and are seeking treatment at area hospitals, police said.
A 17-year-old boy was also grazed by a bullet and was transported by Uber to a local hospital. He is listed in stable condition, according to police.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Photography by Keith Getter (all rights reserved)/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Twenty-three states from California to Connecticut are on alert for blizzard, heavy snow, flooding, strong winds and bitter wind chill as two massive winter storms pound the U.S.
In California, over 100,000 customers are without power Friday morning as the West Coast storm pounds the region.
Six inches of rain is forecast for Southern California, where flooding and mudslides are possible.
A rare blizzard warning was issued for Southern California where up to 8 feet of snow is possible in the highest elevations in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.
Big Bear Lake in the mountains of Southern California has already seen 37 inches of snow, with more to come.
A dusting of snow has even reached the hills around San Francisco and the hills of Hollywood.
In the Midwest and the Northeast, residents are digging out from the second winter storm.
Over 700,000 customers in Michigan are without power Friday morning after an ice storm hit, coating trees and power lines.
A volunteer firefighter in Paw Paw, Michigan, died Wednesday evening when a power line fell on him, according to Paw Paw Fire Chief Jim DeGroff. The buildup of ice caused a tree limb to snap the line, DeGroff said.
Minneapolis saw over 1 foot of snow, marking the city’s second-biggest February snowstorm.
In the Northeast, the storm dumped 6 to 10 inches of snow in New England and upstate New York.
Now a short-lived cold blast is expected for the Northeast. The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — is forecast to plummet to 14 degrees in New York and minus 6 degrees in Boston.
Washington, D.C., which saw a record high of 81 degrees Thursday, will face a dramatic plunge to a wind chill of 25 degrees by Saturday morning.
