An unidentified illness has killed over a dozen dogs in northern Michigan, according to officials.
The Otsego County Animal Shelter said in a statement Friday that over 20 dogs in the county have died due to an illness similar to parvovirus, a highly contagious and often-deadly gastrointestinal disease in dogs.
The shelter’s director, Melissa Fitzgerald, released a statement on Aug. 9 saying that most of the dogs who died were less than 2 years old and died within three days of showing symptoms.
Fitzgerald said the symptoms included bloody diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy and a loss of appetite.
However, when the dogs were taken to be tested for parvovirus, the statement said, the tests came back negative.
Fitzgerald said the “best guess” for the cause of the deaths is an unknown strain of parvovirus.
According to the shelter, the illness is not affecting one breed over another, but appears to be more common in puppies and elderly dogs.
The shelter’s statement added that no dogs that have been properly vaccinated have been among those to die in recent weeks.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is investigating the recent deaths.
“We are still in the early stages of this investigation, but some of the first samples submitted to the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory were positive for canine parvovirus. However, there are more results pending and more to be learned,” state veterinarian Nora Wineland said in a statement.
“When MDARD first learned of these cases in northern Michigan, we immediately reached out to the veterinarians and animal shelters involved and began our response efforts,” Wineland added. “Protecting animal and public health is one of the department’s key pillars, but it is a team effort. Dog owners need to ensure their pet is up to date on routine vaccinations as it’s the first step in keeping your pet healthy.”
Jennifer Holton, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, told ABC News that because parvovirus is not a reportable disease, officials are mostly working with anecdotal information.
“Parvo is an incredibly hardy virus,” Holton said. “And by that, I mean it can survive various temperatures and all kinds of things.”
Holton said it’s essential for pet owners to get their dogs vaccinated and alert their veterinarian if they see signs of illness in their dogs.
She added that proper cleanup, to halt the spread of the disease through fecal matter, is also essential, particularly in high-capacity areas like shelters, doggy daycares and other animal-friendly places.
While the mystery surrounding the current death rates is concerning, Holton said officials have the investigation under control.
“The word ‘panic’ has been used a lot; that is certainly not what we’re doing here,” Holton said. “Prioritizing animal health is one of the key fundamentals of what our animal industry division in this department does on the daily.”
(NEW YORK) — As airlines announce cutting hundreds of flights a day in the fall, industry experts warn ABC News that this situation will become the new normal as air travel demand recovers from the pandemic and deals with a piloting shortage.
But they also cautioned that the airlines may not leave people stranded as they quickly adapt their operations to accommodate for these conditions.
The major airlines have scheduled 574,489 departures in October and 555,515 in November, according to recent data from Airline Data Inc. This is a far cry from the 677,882 departures in October 2019 and 639,248 in November 2019, according to the data.
“These large volume cuts are new. They haven’t occurred in the previous several years,” Jeff Pelletier, the managing director for Airline Data Inc., told ABC News Monday.
Despite the cuts, which Pelletier said haven’t been seen since after Sept. 11, he and other industry watchers say the airlines will be working nonstop to ensure that passengers aren’t stranded.
“These cuts are, right now, placeholders,” Brett Snyder, the president of Cranky Concierge travel assistance, told ABC News. “Typically, airlines plan out their flights about 100 days out, but those can change based on demand and other factors.”
Still, he said the situation should push the industry to rethink the way it plans out its future flights.
The cuts to flights for both October and November vary from airline to airline, according to data.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines saw the biggest decreases in planned departing flights from October 2019 to October 2022, according to Airline Data Inc. The three airlines combined have roughly 95,000 fewer flights in October compared to the same period in 2019 the data showed.
American, Delta and United plan to fly, combined, 79,000 fewer flights in November compared to November 2019, the data showed.
American Airlines said in a statement Monday that its planned October and November departure cuts are in line with its operating procedures prior to the pandemic. American Airlines CEO Robert Isom told investors in July that the airline expects its full-year capacity to be down approximately 7.5% to 9.5% versus 2019.
“We’re sizing the airline for the resources we’ve available and the operating conditions we face, and we’ll make other changes as needed. Even with these adjustments, American still offers customers the largest network of any U.S. airline with an average of more than 5,400 daily departures,” Isom told investors in July.
Pelletier said it will be several years before new pilots can be hired and brought online so, in the meantime, the airlines are adapting in the most efficient way possible. The carriers are using “up to date booking curves” to allocate their aircraft to destinations with more bookings while also lowering the number of flights to destinations that haven’t been popular around this time of the year.
“They’re using that time, that opportunity to say, ‘You know what? Let’s remove an aircraft where there’s lower bookings. Let’s put it where the passengers really want to go that way,'” he said.
“This is going to be the new norm, I believe, for at least the next couple of years,” he added.
Snyder also noted that the fall typically sees a decrease in planned flights in October and November, even before the pandemic, and these new numbers reflect the fact that the industry is still recovering.
He added that passengers looking to book a flight during those two months shouldn’t worry because airlines have, in the past, added extra flights closer to departure based on demand and timing.
“I would bet we would see more flights added around Thanksgiving,” he said.
On Thursday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote a letter to carriers, calling on them to improve their customer service. He warned airlines that new rules may be coming to better empower travelers who face flight disruptions within the airlines’ control.
Roughly 24% of domestic flights of U.S. airlines have been delayed and 3.2% have been canceled during the first six months of this year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Americans expect when they purchase an airline ticket they will arrive at their destination safely, reliably and affordably,” Buttigieg wrote.
Airlines for America, or A4A, the group that lobbies on behalf of all major U.S. airlines, responded to the letter and said its members are “committed” to working with stakeholders to overcome these challenges.
Carriers noted that increased demand and staffing issues were factors behind the disruptions. A4A also cited data that indicated 63% of the cancellations for the first five months of 2022 were caused by weather and the National Airspace System (NAS) collectively.
Pelletier said anyone who purchased a ticket for a flight in October or November should check with their airline to make sure there weren’t any last second scheduling changes. For passengers who haven’t booked their flight, he warned that they should be prepared for timing issues but reiterated that they would be able to make their destination.
“Maybe you need to travel a day before, [or] a day after,” he said. “At this point, everybody needs to be flexible, both the airlines and as they try to accommodate as many passengers as they can and the traveling public in order to get from point A to point B. They’ll get there.”
Snyder agreed that the airlines do not want to lose the revenue or their customers’ trust as they continue to rebound from the pandemic and will do everything they can to accommodate their request. He added that the situation should prompt the carriers to come up with a new system where they schedule their flights more accurately in advance to avoid any more problems that can occur from outside factors.
“They need to create a better placeholder, but that’s been hard because demand has been so variable since the pandemic,” he said.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney and Barbara Friedman contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump allegedly had more than 700 pages of classified material in his possession, according to a May 10 letter from the National Archives to a lawyer representing Trump.
The purported text of the letter was posted by conservative journalist John Solomon on Monday evening
The 700 pages of classified material referenced were found in the 15 boxes that the Archives retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in January, according to the letter.
Trump had authorized Solomon as one of his liaisons to the National Archives to review documents from his presidency.
The posted version of the letter confirms ABC News’ previous reporting that documents with the highest levels of classification, including some labeled “Special Access Program” were found.
“As the Department of Justice’s National Security Division explained to you on April 29, 2022: There are important national security interests in the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community getting access to these materials. According to NARA, among the materials in the boxes are over 100 documents with classification markings, comprising more than 700 pages,” the letter reads.
“Some include the highest levels of classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) materials. Access to the materials is not only necessary for purposes of our ongoing criminal investigation, but the Executive Branch must also conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps.”
While Solomon framed this as President Joe Biden taking a more direct role than previously known in Justice Department’s investigation of classified materials at Mar-a-Lago, the letter actually shows how Biden deferred all decisions regarding executive privilege assertions entirely to top DOJ lawyers.
The Archives did not respond to ABC’s request for comment on the letters’ authenticity. A lawyer for Trump also did not respond. The White House did not immediately return ABC’s request for comment.
The letter provides insight into the back and forth between Trump’s team and the National Archives and shows that even though the original 15 boxes were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in January, federal investigators did not ultimately gain access to them until months later because of negotiations with Trump’s lawyers.
The letter also reveals that DOJ and National Archives determined that there is no basis to assert privilege over the 15 boxes of records obtained.
The letter also makes clear that Trump’s representatives for the Archives must have the proper level of security clearance to review documents they request to review.
(NEW YORK) — Tesla will split its stock on Wednesday, joining giant firms like Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which have chopped up shares this year as a means of reducing their price and making them more accessible to investors.
The stock split has largely fallen out of fashion in corporate America. Shares, however, usually rise over the year following a split, according to a study conducted by Nasdaq.
Here’s what a stock split means and why it matters:
What does the stock split entail?
Tesla is set to split its shares 3 to 1, meaning the current holder of a single share will receive two additional shares for a total of three. Each of the three shares will be valued at a third of the price of an investor’s original share, leaving the total value of a shareholder’s stock unchanged.
Investors who held Tesla stock on Aug. 17 will be eligible to receive the additional shares.
As of Tuesday morning, the stock price stood at about $875, so if that price holds, a 3 to 1 split would leave shares at about $291.
What does the stock split mean for Tesla?
Typically a stock split signals optimism in a company. It also indicates confidence that the share price will eventually rise to a level near or surpassing where it stood before the split.
Recent performance of Tesla shares support such an interpretation. Over the past month, Tesla stock has surged, rising more than 6% as of early trading on Tuesday. Prior to a drop over the past week, the stock had risen more than 13% since a month ago.
The company last month reported mixed second quarter earnings, which showed a decline in profit of nearly one-third from the previous three-month period in part due to production slowdowns at a factory in Shanghai amid COVID lockdowns.
When compared with the same quarter a year ago, Tesla profit had doubled and revenue had grown 42%, signaling strong growth over the long term.
Still, on the whole, the company’s shares have suffered a difficult 2022, falling more than 18% since the outset of the year. That drop is in line with each of the three major stock indexes, which have plummeted this year.
What usually happens to a stock after a split?
Stock splits usually trigger a rise in the price of shares, according toa Nasdaq study that examined stock splits at large companies between 2012 and 2018. Even the mere announcement of a stock split yielded an average 2.5% price increase for a stock, the Nasdaq found; and a year after a stock split, shares saw an average price hike of nearly 5%.
(NEW YORK) — Marijuana and hallucinogen use among young adults has reached a new high.
Use of marijuana and hallucinogens by 19- to 30-year-olds reached their highest levels since tracking began in 1988, according to a new Monitoring the Future panel study supported by the National Institutes of Health.
In 2021, 43% said they’d used marijuana in the last year, which was up 34% from five years ago and 29% compared to 10 years ago. More than 1 in 10 said they now use marijuana every day, according to the study.
Eight percent of young adults reported using hallucinogens in the past year in 2021, up from 5% in 2016 and 3% in 2011, the study showed.
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told Good Morning America that this data provides a window into young adults’ substance use patterns.
“Certainly the consumption of marijuana has been going up across all of the country and it is driven by the legalization,” she said.
In a statement released with the study, Volkow explained that as the drug landscape shifts over time “we need to know more about how young adults are using drugs like marijuana and hallucinogens, and the health effects that result from consuming different potencies and forms of these substances.”
Recreational marijuana use is legal for adults in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Many advocates claim marijuana is as safe if not safer than alcohol, which is believed to contribute to tens of thousands of deaths a year. Alcohol remained the most-used substance among adults in the study, and binge drinking — having five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks — rebounded in 2021 after a historic low in 2020.
Researchers said they have seen some negative effects of marijuana.
Dr. Maria Rahmandar, medical director for substance use and prevention at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, told GMA that the results of this study are “particularly concerning for teenagers and young adults who have developing brains that are particularly susceptible to the negative effects.”
She continued, “Pretty much everybody who ends up having a problem with substance use started as a teenager and continued use as a young adult.”
One trend that has grown increasingly popular are beverages infused with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
Cannabis data company BDSA reported sales of cannabis beverages increased 65% from 2020 to 2021 in the 12 markets it tracked.
Doctors urge caution, saying you may not know exactly what’s in the drink or how it could affect an individual, and say the beverages are both understudied and underregulated.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration “is aware that some companies are marketing products containing cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds in ways that violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and that may put the health and safety of consumers at risk.”
The agency said on its website that it is committed to improving “regulatory pathways for the lawful marketing of appropriate cannabis and cannabis-derived products.”
(NEW YORK) — As Dallas reels from deadly flooding, the rain is now moving east.
Heavy downpours will strike Louisiana, southeast Texas and southern Arkansas on Tuesday morning.
The flooding rains will stay in place over Louisiana and southeast Texas throughout the day.
In Shreveport, Louisiana, residents are already wading through up to 7 inches of rain from the past 24 hours. Flash flood warnings are in effect.
San Antonio and Austin, Texas, facing one of the driest years on record, are also under flood watches.
On Wednesday morning, the heavy rain will continue in eastern Louisiana and will reach Mississippi, where 10 inches of rain is possible over the next 48 hours.
This comes after downpours pounded the Dallas region Sunday night and Monday, at one point reaching 3.01 inches of rain in one hour.
A state of disaster was declared Monday night in Dallas County as officials announced that a 60-year-old woman died when her car was swept away in floodwaters.
East Dallas recorded a whopping 15.31 inches of rain. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport saw 9.19 inches of rain over 24 hours — the highest in 90 years.
Dallas usually sees a total of 8 inches of rain throughout the entire summer.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Democrats are trying to keep control of a House remade by the once-a-decade redistricting process.
Tuesday will offer perhaps the most visible display of the impact that post-census redistricting has had — especially on their party and their chances of maintaining a mere five-seat majority.
Democrats initially saw New York state as an opportunity to wipe out GOP gains elsewhere in the country. But the courts said that they went too far, ruling their maps were unconstitutional and demanding the districts be redrawn.
As a result, the New York House races were pushed back two months, putting the primaries on the same date as Florida’s, where Gov. Ron DeSantis also inserted himself into his state’s redistricting process, proposing a congressional map that experts say was designed to elect as few Democrats to Congress as possible and guarantee a victory for Republicans. (Florida’s redistricting had legal drama of its own.)
The new map in New York forced perhaps the most highly anticipated matchup of the primary season. Veteran Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney are going head-to-head for the chance to represent the new 12th Congressional District, with a young progressive challenger, attorney and former Obama staffer Suraj Patel, also in the mix.
Nadler and Maloney have largely similar voting records. Nadler has highlighted his work as Judiciary Committee chairman, leading the committee during Trump’s impeachments, while Maloney has chaired the Oversight Committee since 2019.
Maloney found herself in hot water earlier this month when she pooh-poohed President Joe Biden’s stated plan to run for reelection. Maloney eventually walked back the comment, tweeting that she would support Biden if he decides to run again.
“Biden’s leadership securing historic investments for healthcare, climate & economic justice prove once again why he is the strong and effective leader we need right now,” she wrote.
Meanwhile Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee, upset progressives with his decision to run in the new 17th District, causing a chain reaction that has other incumbents imperiled, such as freshman Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is seeking reelection in the 10th District in what is expected to be a bitter proxy fight between moderate and progressives and has already drawn grievances from other Democratic members of Congress.
In Florida, DeSantis will find out which Democrat he will face on his road to possible reelection, which could then lead straight to a 2024 presidential run. Rep. Charlie Crist is seen as the favored candidate to challenge DeSantis for the office Crist himself once held as a Republican. But to make it to November, Crist must defeat progressive Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried, his biggest competitor.
In the Seventh Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy decided not to seek reelection — which would have been a challenge: A few months after Murphy’s announcement, the state legislature tilted her seat bright red, according to FiveThirtyEight. Even though several candidates are running in the GOP primary there, the race comes down to two candidates: Army combat veteran Cory Mills, endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz, and state Rep. Anthony Sabatini.
And the Senate primary is setting up a battle between GOP incumbent Marco Rubio and Democratic Rep. Val Demings. Demings is expected to win her primary and go head-to-head with Rubio (unopposed in his primary) in the general election. Currently, FiveThirtyEight’s Senate Forecast has Rubio favored to win the seat, keeping it in Republican control.
(NEW YORK) — The Democratic primary battle between Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler in New York City is heading to a bitterly personal finish that’ll see one of the senior House members leave Congress.
Nadler, who chairs the judiciary committee, and Maloney, who helms the committee on oversight and reform, were drawn into the same seat, the 12th, in an unexpected twist in the redistricting process that now leaves New York voters deciding between two city titans with established power bases.
Attorney and former Obama staffer Suraj Patel, a 38-year-old progressive, is also running on a generational argument against the two septuagenarians.
Nadler has emerged as the front-runner of the trio in the lead-up to Tuesday’s primary, but Election Day will cap off a frustrating and nasty stretch of the race for city residents, observers say.
“The loser in this is New York. New York voters have been forced into this messy situation of being forced to make a choice that they never planned to and never intended. These are two members in good standing with the electorate,” said New York City-based Democratic strategist Jon Reinish. “If you’re a New York City voter, it really sucks to have to make this choice.”
Nadler and Maloney, both elected in 1992, have longstanding ties to different parts of Manhattan.
Nadler for years represented a district anchored in the Upper West Side and Maloney’s old seat covered the Upper East Side, two wealthy enclaves in New York City.
Patel hasn’t held public office but came within 4% of beating Maloney in a primary in 2020.
Nadler and Maloney have long been allies in the House and lamented the circumstances they were handed when a Democratic-drawn House map for New York, after the last census, was tossed in favor of one lumping their districts together. Yet once the race got underway, barbs started to fly.
Nadler has torn into Maloney’s long voting record on high-profile issues, including her past support for the Iraq War and Bush-era Patriot Act and opposition to the Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration. Nadler also sought to characterize Maloney as a COVID-19 vaccine skeptic, a particularly sharp elbow to be thrown during the pandemic. (Her website states that she believes “vaccines are safe, effective, and absolutely essential for public health.”)
Maloney, meanwhile, has seemingly gone after Nadler’s age. While Nadler, 75, is one year Maloney’s junior, she appeared to pour jet fuel on chatter about his stamina, particularly after he sat at a primary debate while Maloney and Patel stood.
Earlier this month she expressed concerns about “if for some reason someone will not serve their term,” citing “tons of rumors out there.” She later reportedly said she thinks Nadler would finish another term.
Patel has argued that it’s time for a change in Congress while also hitting Nadler and Maloney for wishy-washy answers over whether President Joe Biden should run for reelection in 2024.
“This is not 1992 anymore,” Patel said in a press conference on Monday. “From abortion rights to gun control to climate change, we need energetic, new leaders, optimists with hope and ideas and energy, and we are incredibly proud of the way we have conducted this campaign.”
Early in the race, it was speculated that Nadler and Maloney would split the so-called establishment vote and that Patel could win on his fresh-faced message.
“My thought was that Patel could benefit from that being from a new and younger generation. However, maybe it has benefited Nadler and to an extent Maloney that Washington Democrats over the past couple of weeks have some wind at their backs, seem to have opened up their eyes, realized that they’re in the majority and have delivered. And maybe that has benefited these two institutionalists,” Reinish said, referring to recent major legislation congressional Democrats have sent to Biden’s desk.
Nadler has enjoyed a burst of momentum in the final stretch, winning the coveted endorsements of The New York Times‘ editorial board and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — support that led Maloney to decry the influence of the “old boys’ network that sticks together.”
Regardless of the outcome Tuesday, New York City will be losing a senior member of Congress who’s built up a career’s worth of chits in the Capitol.
Democrats lament that as a self-inflicted loss after their heavily gerrymandered House map was challenged by Republicans and ultimately scrapped by a state court, handing the map-drawling process to an outside special master who did not take Democratic priorities into account.
“I think that they naively thought that there would never be a lawsuit that could effectively overturn their maps and render their process moot,” said Reinish, the strategist. “And I think that they did not plan at all well for that. And I think it was very easy for the Republicans to find a judge to do it. They did it very successfully.”
(ATLANTA) — Every state saw a decline in life expectancy during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new federal data published Tuesday.
The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, looked at death data for 2020, the last year for which complete data is available.
Results found that life expectancy declined in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2019 to 2020, mainly due to COVID and “unintentional injuries,” such as drug overdoses, according to the report.
States with the highest life expectancy were predominantly in the West and Northeast, while states with the lowest life expectancy tended to be in the South, CDC data found.
For the United States overall, life expectancy at birth was 77.0 years — a decrease of 1.8 years from the life expectancy of 78.8 years in 2020.
When broken down by state, Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at 80.7 years while Mississippi had the lowest at 71.9 years, the report said.
Aside from Hawaii, in the top five were Washington, Minnesota, California and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, rounding out the bottom five were West Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama and Kentucky.
The report found that women had an overall higher life expectancy than men at 79.9 years compared to 74.2. What’s more, in every state and D.C., women had a higher life expectancy than men, according to the report.
Hawaii and Mississippi kept their respective highest and lowest ranks when it came to life expectancy for men and women.
In Hawaii, men had a life expectancy of 77.6 years in 2020 and women had a life expectancy of 83.8 years. In Mississippi, men had a life expectancy of 68.6 years in comparison with the life expectancy of women at 75.2 years.
The report also looked at life expectancy after adults reached age 65, when they are considered senior citizens. Overall, in the U.S., adults were projected to live an additional 18.5 years after reaching age 65 in 2020.
Once again, the Aloha State and the Magnolia State had the highest and lowest life expectancy at 21.0 additional years and 16.1 additional years, respectively.
The report also found that life expectancy dropped in every single state from 2019 to 2020.
New York saw the biggest drop from 80.7 years to 77.7 years, and Hawaii saw the smallest drop from 80.9 years to 80.7 years.
Additionally, the report found that, generally, states in the South, as well as well-populated states like Illinois and New Jersey, had the biggest drops in life expectancy from 2019 to 2020, while states in New England and the West had the lowest declines.
“Overall, life expectancy in the United States declined by 1.8 years from 2019 to 2020, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in unintentional injuries (mainly drug overdose deaths),” the authors wrote.
Meanwhile, annual drug overdose deaths have been rising. In 2020, more than 83,500 people died from drug overdoses, a record high at the time, according to the National Safety Council.
The CDC did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Riccardo Fabi/NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE photo
(PORCIA, Italy) — A U.S. service member is under investigation in Italy for allegedly striking and killing a teenage boy with her car while intoxicated, according to Italian media.
Italian news agency ANSA reported that the fatal incident occurred in the northern town of Porcia on Sunday at around 2:30 a.m. local time. A 20-year-old unnamed American woman, who is stationed at Aviano Air Base, less than 10 miles north of Porcia, was allegedly driving back after a night out when she lost control of her vehicle at a roundabout and hit 15-year-old Giovanni Zanier, who was walking home with two friends on a cycling path near the road. Zanier died, while his friends were not injured, according to ANSA, which cited Italian police.
The driver suffered minor injuries from broken glass and the air bag deploying during the crash. Her blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit, ANSA reported.
Italian police placed the U.S. servicewoman under house arrest at Aviano Air Base and charged her with vehicular homicide, according to ANSA.
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force told ABC News on Monday: “We can confirm there was a vehicle incident involving an Airman from Aviano Air Base. The Air Force is cooperating with local authorities on the investigation.”
ANSA reported that an Italian judge is expected to decide this week whether the case will be prosecuted in Italy or in the United States.
Speaking to Italy’s state-owned public broadcaster RAI, Pordenone Prosecutor Raffaele Tito said the Italian Ministry of Justice can ask that the American woman be tried in Italy based on its own decision or a request by the U.S. to do so. Tito’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Tuesday.
If Italian prosecutors indict the American woman, U.S. authorities could invoke jurisdiction as part of an Italian-U.S. military treaty under NATO auspices. U.S. military officials could take over the prosecution in that case. But there was currently no indication that Italy’s justice minister would intervene.
The town council of Porcia had recently ordered streetlights in the location where the accident occurred to be shut off at 2 a.m. local time, but Italian police said the crash would probably not have been averted even with the lights on, according to ANSA.
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
