(LOS ANGELES) — Anne Heche’s death has been ruled an accident, more than a week after suffering serious injuries in a fiery Los Angeles car crash, city records show.
Heche, 53, died from inhalation and thermal injuries, according to records from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner. She also suffered a sternal fracture due to blunt trauma, the records stated. The day of her death was listed as Aug. 11.
The actress was declared brain dead on the night of Aug. 11 but was kept on life support for organ donation, and her heart was still beating, her representative said. She was peacefully taken off life support on Sunday, her representative said.
Heche was alone in her car on Aug. 5 when she crashed into a home in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, engulfing her car and the house in flames, according to Los Angeles police and fire officials. No one else was injured in the single-car crash, and the home’s resident and her pets were able to escape the blaze unharmed.
She suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and was in a coma in critical condition following the crash, her family and friends said in a statement.
Heche was not expected to survive her injuries, her family said, noting that it “has long been her choice to donate her organs,” her family said.
Results from a blood draw completed after the crash showed Heche had narcotics in her system, but additional tests were being run to determine more about the drugs, and to rule out which ones may have been present based on drugs administered at the hospital, according to the Los Angeles Police Department,
Investigators told ABC News no alcohol was detected in Heche’s blood sample, though the blood draw was many hours after the crash.
LAPD investigators told ABC News on Aug. 12 that the criminal investigation had ended due to the latest developments in her condition.
Heche is survived by her two sons.
“My brother Atlas and I lost our Mom,” her oldest son, Homer, said in a statement Friday. “After six days of almost unbelievable emotional swings, I am left with a deep, wordless sadness. Hopefully my mom is free from pain and beginning to explore what I like to imagine as her eternal freedom.”
“Rest In Peace Mom, I love you,” he said.
ABC News’ Alex Stone and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — A Florida appeals court ruled on Monday that a 16-year-old girl was not “mature enough” to decide to terminate her pregnancy.
The decision comes after a circuit judge in northwest Florida ruled that the teen could not get an abortion without notification and consent of a parent or guardian, despite the fact the teen has been found to be “parentless.”
The teen was requesting to bypass the Florida law that requires all individuals in the state under the age of 18 to receive parental consent before obtaining an abortion. At the time of the original hearing, the teen was 10 weeks pregnant, although it is unclear how far along she was at the time of Monday’s decision.
According to the ruling, the teen, unnamed and referred to as Jane Doe 22-B, lives with a relative and has an appointed guardian.
In her initial court filing, the teen said her guardian was “fine” with her pursuing an abortion.
However, Escambia County Circuit Judge Jessica Frydrychowicz denied the bypass request, and a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal upheld the decision.
Judges Harvey Jay and Rachel Nordby concurred with the entire decision, holding that the case did not need to be returned to the circuit judge. Judge Scott Makar stood by the decision to block the bypass, but dissented against closing the case, instead asserting that the teen’s request should be returned to the circuit judge for further consideration.
According to Makar’s dissent, the teen is pursuing a GED with “involvement in a program designed to assist young women who have experienced trauma in their lives by providing educational support and counseling.”
The ruling said the teen had endured “renewed trauma” as her friend died shortly before she sought to obtain an abortion.
Makar continued to write that the teen said in a court petition that she was “sufficiently mature” to make a decision about an abortion and was not ready to have a baby, as she did not have a job and the father was unable to assist her.
According to the ruling, the teen came to her circuit hearing with a case worker and a guardian ad-litem child advocate manager. Makar said she had “inexplicably” chosen not to ask for representation by an attorney, which would have been free.
Makar said the trial was conducted admirably, as the trial judge “displayed concern for the minor’s predicament throughout the hearing [and] asked difficult questions of the minor on sensitive personal matters in a compassionate manner.”
However, Makar wrote that the case was a “close call” and that the teen “showed, at times, that she is stable and mature enough to make this decision.”
Makar said in the ruling that the teen had looked into abortion and had gained an understanding of her medical options and their consequences.
The ruling said the court had found that the teen “acknowledges she is not ready for the emotional, physical, or financial responsibility of raising a child” and “has valid concerns about her ability to raise a child.”
Makar, in his dissent, said he believes the trial court wanted to give the teen additional time to deal with her friend’s death before deciding to obtain an abortion, and should be able to return to court to further petition her case.
Florida law bans abortions after 15 weeks, significantly sooner than the 24-week cut off that existed in the state’s laws prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. The 15-week ban is currently being challenged in state courts.
In the state’s “Parental Notice of and Consent for Abortion Act,” physicians must get written consent from a parent or legal guardian before performing an abortion on a minor. Exceptions are made in medical emergencies or with a waiver from the parents or guardian.
(NEW YORK) — A child in Oregon has tested positive for monkeypox, state health officials announced Wednesday, marking the ninth reported pediatric case in the U.S.
“We have a known connection to a previously diagnosed case,” Dr. Dean Sidelinger, health officer and state epidemiologist at the Oregon Health Authority, said in a press release. “This child did not get the virus at school, child care or another community setting.”
The case has been linked to an adult monkeypox infection that was confirmed last month, officials said, adding that public health authorities received the positive test result on Aug. 15.
Health officials have initiated a case investigation and are conducting contact tracing to determine potential exposures. No additional information on the case will be disclosed at this time, due to patient privacy.
A total of 116 presumptive and confirmed cases of monkeypox have been reported in Oregon, including 112 men and four women.
In total, at least 7 U.S. states and jurisdictions have reported pediatric monkeypox cases.
Earlier this week, health officials in Harris County, Texas, confirmed to ABC News that a presumptive case had been identified in a child under the age of 2.
Officials reported the child has been completely asymptomatic, according to the child’s parents, with no other symptoms other than a residual rash. The child is expected to make a full recovery, and is doing “very, very well,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“I understand that it’s a very scary thing, and parents have concerns, and what we need to make sure is to be vigilant and understand the risks, not assume the worst. But this reminds us that this is very real,” Hidalgo said.
The family has also been fully cooperative, and is assisting with contact tracing, though the child has not been in any day care or school settings. Thus far, no one else in the child’s circle has been identified as positive for monkeypox, according to officials.
How this child contracted monkeypox is still unknown, Hidalgo said.
“I understand this is a very, very worrisome for parents, especially as school is starting back up knowing that a child in our community has now contracted or as a presumptive positive for the monkey pox virus. It opens up a lot of questions about how this is spread. It makes people very worried. It makes things very tangible,” Hidalgo added.
Although this is indeed a “rare” case, Hidalgo noted that “we always knew that any person in this community can contract monkeypox. We knew that it was possible for a child to be exposed. Anyone can get this virus, so this isn’t entirely unexpected.”
The news of the positive pediatric case in Texas comes after a child in Martin County, Florida, tested positive for monkeypox, according to state health data. The child in Florida is between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, according to the state health data.
Officials in Maine also announced Friday that they, too, had confirmed a positive monkeypox case in a child. No further information about the case has been released due to concerns over patient privacy, officials said.
“Maine CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] is working to identify any others who may have been exposed and make vaccination available to close contacts,” officials wrote in a press release.
In addition to the cases in children reported in Maine and Florida, two cases have been confirmed in California, as well another two in Indiana, and a case in a non-U.S. resident reported in Washington, D.C.
The majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously warned that there has been some preliminary evidence to suggest that children younger than 8 years old are at risk of developing more severe illness if infected, alongside pregnant people and those who are immunocompromised.
However, last week, in an effort to protect the youngest Americans, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization that allows health care for children under 18 who are at high risk of monkeypox to be vaccinated.
Across the globe, nearly 32,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported, including nearly 12,000 cases in the U.S. — the most of any country, according to the CDC. All but one U.S. state — Wyoming — have now confirmed at least one positive monkeypox case.
Monkeypox primarily spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact with infected people’s lesions or bodily fluids, according to the CDC. In addition to lesions, which can appear like pimples or blisters, the most common symptoms associated with monkeypox are swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday castigated Republicans who are attacking the FBI after the agency searched Donald Trump’s residence in Florida.
The Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago, which sources told ABC News is tied to the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and other White House records, has Republicans railing against the federal law enforcement agency as well as the Department of Justice.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, the number 3 House Republican, said the search was “a complete abuse and overreach of its authority.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is calling to defund the FBI. Trump himself has consistently assailed the FBI and Department of Justice, calling the raid “an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”
The FBI has warned about rising threats against law enforcement since the search. A joint intelligence bulletin obtained by ABC News said there has been an “increase in threats and acts of violence” against law enforcement and government personnel in response to what occurred at Mar-a-Lago.
Last week, a man armed with AR-15 style rifle allegedly tried to break into an FBI field office in Cincinnati and later was shot dead by police. Law enforcement officials said they were investigating the suspect’s social media posts, which included calls for violence in the days after the raid.
Speaking at a political event in Manchester, New Hampshire on Wednesday, Pence said the criticisms coming from members of his own party have to end.
“The Republican Party is the party of law and order,” Pence said. “And these attacks on the FBI must stop; calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police.”
Pence said he was “deeply troubled” to learn that a search warrant was executed at Trump’s estate but said the party can still hold Attorney General Merrick Garland accountable “without attacking the rank-and-file law enforcement personnel at the FBI.”
“The truth of the matter is, we need to get to the bottom of what happened,” Pence continued. “We need to let the facts play out, but more than anything else, the American people need to be reassured in the integrity of our justice system and the very appearance of a recurrence of politics playing a role in decisions that the Justice Department demands transparency as never before.”
The vice president said he will continue to urge Attorney General Merrick Garland to make such information available to the public.
Trump and his allies want the search warrant affidavit to be released but the Department of Justice said doing so would jeopardize the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
A hearing is scheduled for Thursday on the request from multiple media outlets, ABC News included, to unseal the affidavit.
Pence also commented on the work of the Jan. 6 committee at the “Politics & Eggs” breakfast at St. Anselm College. The former vice president stating he would consider testifying if asked. Sources have told ABC News that committee investigators have been privately engaging with Pence’s lawyer about securing his potential testimony for months.
“Any formal invitation rendered to us, we’d give it due consideration. But my first obligation is to continue to uphold my oath, continue to uphold this framework of government enshrined in the Constitution, this created the greatest nation in the history of the world,” he said.
(MISSOURI CITY, Texas) — A Texas middle school student had quite the start to her first day of school after she opened her front door to see an alligator.
Running back into the house, her father didn’t believe her until he saw the gator, Mike Trinh wrote in a Facebook post.
Luckily, the Missouri City local said his years of watching the “Crocodile Hunter,” the late Steve Irwin, on TV prepared him to take on the gator.
Trinh, the owner of nearby restaurant Mike’s Seafood, told ABC News on Wednesday that he had to get his kids to school, so he threw a towel over the gator to subdue it and walk past to his car. However, when he returned from his drop-off duties, Trinh said the gator was still on his front porch.
“I’ve never had to deal with a gator like this,” he said. “You see them in the water, but never crawling through the subdivision and up to the front door.”
Trinh said he called Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office who then directed him to the Missouri City Police Department, who Trinh said then directed him to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which hadn’t yet opened for the day.
After waiting for about an hour, Trinh told ABC News, he decided to address the gator himself.
“I pinned his mouth closed with a sledgehammer and got onto his back,” Trinh said. “I asked my daughter to get duct tape and she started taping his mouth shut. I finished taping up his mouth and then taped his legs together.”
Trinh told ABC News Houston station KTRK that he is a former mixed martial arts fighter, which helped guide him in pinning down the animal.
Eventually, Trinh decided to call a local game warden since he hadn’t heard back from other officials. However, Trinh said the fee would have been $300 to have someone come take the gator, a price he wasn’t willing to pay.
Instead, Trinh and a friend loaded the gator into the back of the truck and drove to a nearby lake. After untaping the gator, Trinh said the animal slid off the back of the truck and into the water.
Experts say that it’s unusual for an alligator to approach humans, as they usually will stay within the water.
However, if you do find yourself squaring off with a gator, experts offer several tips on how to fight back and get away.
(ATLANTA) — A scathing review of how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention handled COVID-19 has found that its approach toward the pandemic failed to meet the moment of crisis, and offered a series of changes intended to revamp the agency and make it more nimble.
“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement on Wednesday.
A fact sheet outlining the review, obtained by ABC News and confirmed by the CDC, said that the “need for change came through loud and clear.”
Walensky ordered the review in April after the CDC had come under frequent fire for its muddled and inconsistent messaging on COVID mitigation measures.
During interviews with roughly 120 agency staff and key external stakeholders, the review found that it “takes too long for CDC to publish its data and science for decision making,” that its guidance is “confusing and overwhelming” and that agency staff turnover during the COVID response “created gaps and other challenges for partners,” according to findings obtained by ABC News.
And while Walensky also defended, in part, the overwhelming job of handling the pandemic, the center said the country’s public health infrastructure is “frail.” The review also revealed the CDC’s “operating posture” was “not adequate to effectively respond to a crisis the size and scope” of COVID.
The CDC’s goals going forward will focus on improving “accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness” within and outside the agency, the report said.
“As a long-time admirer of this agency and a champion for public health, I want us all to do better and it starts with CDC leading the way,” Walensky said in a statement.
As part of the suggested solutions, Walensky committed to sharing scientific findings and data faster, rather than at the typical speed for academic publication.
“Produce data for action” rather than “data for publication,” said a CDC briefing document summarizing the changes.
The new recommendations also put a large emphasis on improving public health communications to the American people. “The website is not easy to navigate,” the document said.
To spearhead the next steps towards the agency’s overhaul, Walensky intends to appoint former Obama administration Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Mary Wakefield to oversee the shift and “help implement the vision.”
The review also outlines plans to create a new executive council reporting to Walensky, which will “determine agency priorities, track progress, and align budget decisions, with a bias toward public health impact.”
Walensky did not provide a timeline for the changes, but said she will provide regular updates internally.
“None of these challenges happened overnight,” CDC said in a statement. “The work ahead will take time and engagement at all levels of the organization.”
ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Traffic deaths for the first quarter of this year were the highest since 2002, according to early estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The agency estimates 9,560 people died from motor vehicle crashes during the first quarter of this year — up 7% from the same time in 2021.
Traffic-related deaths have been on the rise since the onset of the pandemic. In 2019, NHTSA reported 36,355 people died on U.S. roads — a number that grew to 38,824 in 2020 and 42,915 in 2021, despite less cars on the road.
“The overall numbers are still moving in the wrong direction,” said NHTSA administrator Steve Cliff.
“We’re talking about three years in a row of traffic deaths, not just being up but being up significantly,” Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the non-profit Governor’s Highway Safety Association said in an interview with ABC News.
Adkins said the surge is due to multiple factors — including less traffic enforcement on roads and prevalence of dangerous behaviors among drivers.
“States are telling me all across the country that speeds are up, drivers are just continuing to speed,” Adkins said. “We really need to bring some of the same attention to speeding that was brought to drunk driving and distracted driving. If we were to get drivers to slow down even a little bit, that make a big difference.”
Cliff said states should “double down” on traffic safety, saying, “Through the bipartisan infrastructure law, there are more resources than ever for research, interventions and effective messaging and programs that can reverse the deadly trend and save lives.”
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Liz Cheney is looking to turn her landslide loss in Wyoming’s Republican primary Tuesday night into a nationwide crusade to keep Donald Trump out of the White House — one she said Wednesday could include her running for president herself.
Despite her six-year tenure in Congress now headed to a close, Cheney said her political work isn’t done yet and is previewing what’s to come next — including a potential run for the presidency and an organization aimed at taking down Trump in 2024.
Cheney’s first hint at a presidential campaign came in her concession speech, in which she invoked President Abraham Lincoln as an example of patriotism and a champion of the Republican Party.
“The great and original champion of our party, Abraham Lincoln, was defeated in elections for the Senate and the House before he won the most important election of all,” she told her supporters on Tuesday night. “Lincoln ultimately prevailed, he saved our Union and he defined our obligation as Americans for all of history.”
Cheney, once a rising Republican star, was soundly defeated by Trump-backed Harriet Hageman. Cheney said Tuesday she could have won another term but only if she accepted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
As vice-chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Cheney has become one of the party’s most outspoken critics of the former president.
“It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic — that was a path I could not and would not take,” she said as she addressed her supporters on Tuesday night.
Cheney made a more direct indication she’s thinking about running for the White House on Wednesday morning.
“I’m not going to make any announcements here this morning, but it is something that I am thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months,” Cheney told NBC’s “Today” program on Wednesday.
In the meantime, her focus will be on stopping Trump.
“In coming weeks, Liz will be launching an organization to educate the American people about the ongoing threat to our Republic, and to mobilize a unified effort to oppose any Donald Trump campaign for president,” Cheney spokesperson Jeremy Adler told ABC News.
The news of the anti-Trump group was first reported by Politico.
Trump has yet to formally announce a campaign but has repeatedly hinted at a comeback since the day he left office. Most recently, he told Fox News at CPAC that the “the time is coming” for a formal announcement.
Trump took a victory lap as Cheney was defeated on Tuesday night, calling Hageman’s win “great and very decisive.”
“This is a wonderful result for America, and a complete rebuke of the Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others. Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now.”
His criticism of Cheney continued in another post on Wednesday.
“The Fake News Media is claiming that Liz Cheney has such a ‘wonderful and bright’ political future. Maybe they didn’t notice that she lost by nearly 40 points? She’s too angry and sick to succeed in the future, but who knows!” he wrote on the conservative social media site.
ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Wyoming’s Republican voters got one step closer to picking their secretary of state on Tuesday in a primary matchup of candidates with opposing views on the 2020 election.
ABC News reports that state Rep. Chuck Gray is projected to win the Republican nomination for secretary of state.
Gray, who is endorsed by Donald Trump, claimed the 2020 race was “illegitimate.” He faced state Sen. Tara Nethercott, who has said that she believes the 2020 election was secure; and geologist Mark Armstrong.
Gray also supported the former president after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, tweeting: “This is political persecution!”
There were no listed Democrats on Tuesday seeking the party’s nomination to be secretary of state, though voters could submit write-ins.
The winner of November’s general election will succeed Ed Buchanan, who is retiring and has himself defended the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
While Wyoming is not a competitive state at the presidential level, the race marks another example of election deniers running for a position that would involve overseeing elections.
The secretary of state is also first in line to the governorship, since Wyoming does not have a lieutenant governor.
(WASHINGTON) –The Inflation Reduction Act, a $739 billion measure signed into law by President Joe Biden on Tuesday, levies a 15% minimum tax on large corporations and marks the most significant climate legislation in U.S. history. Meanwhile, the law will reduce the federal deficit by $305 billion over roughly the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
More immediately, however, the legislation will impact everyday Americans’ wallets.
The law, which passed the House and Senate with support from Democrats in party-line votes, empowers a federal agency to negotiate with health insurers over the prices for prescription drugs under Medicare, for instance, which should bring down the cost of some drugs for seniors.
Further, the measure puts a ceiling on out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 beginning in 2025 for people enrolled in Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan for seniors.
Beyond health care, the Inflation Reduction Act carries a host of tax credits and discounts on everything from electric cars to solar energy.
Americans can determine the financial benefits available to them under the law with help from a savings calculator created by Rewiring America, a nonprofit that aims to achieve energy efficiency through the electrification of “everything in our communities.” After entering personal information about the location, size, and income of a given household, the calculator will share all of the savings accessible through the measure.
