(ELKHART COUNTY, Ind.) — Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski and three others were killed Wednesday afternoon in a car crash, according to authorities.
Walorski, 58, was traveling southbound on SR 19 in an SUV with two other people when a car traveling northbound crossed the dividing line and slammed head on into the SUV. All three people in the SUV were killed.
The Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as Walorski; Zachery Potts, 27; and Emma Thomson, 28.
The driver of the other vehicle, Edith Schmucker, 58, was also killed in the crash.
Thomson was Walorski’s communications director and Potts was previously Walorski’s campaign manager and was currently a district director in Indiana for the House of Representatives.
GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Twitter shared a statement — “with a heavy heart” — that he said was from Walorski’s office.
“Jackie was killed in a car accident this afternoon. She has returned home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. We will have no further comment at this time,” the statement read.
According to the statement, Walorski’s husband was notified of her death by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana.
A former state lawmaker, Walorski had represented Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District since 2013.
According to her House biography, she and her husband “previously spent four years as missionaries in Romania, where they started and ran a foundation to provide food and medical supplies to impoverished children there. Jackie also worked as a television news reporter in South Bend and as a development director for colleges and universities in Indiana.”
Walorski’s Republican colleague Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, mourned her death in a brief tweet Wednesday.
“My heart is heavy, and i don’t have the words. But all I can say is prayers for her family,” he wrote. “She was a good and honorable public servant.”
The Elkhart County Coroner’s Office and the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office continue to investigate the crash.
ABC News’ Davone Morales contributed to this report.
(DALLAS) — A Dallas City Council committee passed a resolution Tuesday looking to limit the impact of Texas’s strict abortion law.
The council’s Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture Committee voted to adopt the ordinance, which directs law enforcement to make investigating or prosecuting any allegation related to abortion outcomes their lowest priority.
It also limits city funds from being used to compile reports of abortions that were performed, to “conduct surveillance” to determine whether an abortion has occurred and to relay the information to any governmental agencies.
The resolution will be presented to the full council for a vote Aug. 10.
“I believe that we have to do what we can at every level of government to push back on legislation that takes away our rights, specifically when it comes to women’s rights,” Councilman Adam Bazaldua, who spearheaded the resolution, told ABC News. “It’s our job as local leaders to preserve quality of life for residents and access to health care.”
Bazaldua said it was vital the resolution was passed before Texas’s so-called trigger law goes into effect.
Most abortions were already illegal in the state prior to the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June. However, after the decision, a near-total ban went into effect with very limited exceptions.
When the “trigger law” is enforced on Aug. 25, performing an abortion in Texas will become a felony punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and possibly up to life in prison.
Dallas is not the only Texas city that has attempted to affirm its support of abortion rights.
In June, Denton — 40 miles northwest of Dallas — was the first in the state to adopt a resolution directing police to make investigating abortions a low priority and, last month, the Austin City Council approved a resolution similar to the one passed in Dallas known as the Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone or GRACE Act, which effectively decriminalized abortion within city limits.
In addition to the measures also passed in Dallas, the Austin resolution also launched a public information campaign about vasectomies, explaining that the burden of preventing pregnancies “disproportionately falls on women.”
Lastly, the Austin resolution prevents employment and housing discrimination based on whether someone is pregnant or has had an abortion.
“As a father of a 10-year-old daughter, I find it unfathomable to raise a young woman in a time when she has less rights afforded to her than her grandmother did in her lifetime,” Bazaldua said. “And I think it’s important for this issue to be strongly considered when voters go to vote this November.”
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said water and electricity systems across the state remain heavily damaged Wednesday from intense flooding, an issue raising concerns as scorching heat replaces rainfall.
National, state and local authorities are working to bring food, water and electricity to those in the affected areas, he said.
“These are proud, hardworking folks that have just lost it all, and I think the least we can do as human beings, as people of values, is to give and do what we can to get them back on their feet,” Beshear said.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Beshear also said 1,300 people have been rescued from flooded areas and 3 have been confirmed as missing, although that number is likely higher than what has been reported.
The death toll hasn’t risen since Monday, with 37 people reported to have died due to the floods, according to the governor.
Beshear said that a total of 219 people have been temporarily housed in Kentucky’s state parks and another 221 in shelters, to account for 440 displaced individuals. However, there are many more displaced persons that are staying with friends and family that are not included in that total, he said.
Cooling centers have been established across eight counties region braces for severe heat on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Beshear. The governor encouraged residents, especially elderly, high risk and displaced individuals without electricity to use the cooling centers in order to stay safe in the heat.
Restoring the damaged water systems will require “significant time and significant dollars,” Beshear said.
Beshear added that power outages were cut almost in half on Tuesday, with a remaining 5,058 hookups without power. Water outages remain at just over 1,800 service connections and 45,600 are under boiled water advisories, he said.
The most essential relief right now, Beshear said, is to get people water.
The National Guard has distributed over 2,400 cases of water as of Wednesday morning. Crews continue to deliver supplies and conduct welfare checks, officials said.
Jeremey Lowe, a Kentucky National Guard detachment sergeant and critical care flight paramedic, said the role of his crew has changed from emergency rescues to health and welfare checks over the last couple of days.
At the height of the flooding, Lowe’s crews worked to hoist people off roofs and out of trees using aircraft to take them to a safe area. The paramedics are now working to help elderly and medication dependent residents, he said.
Lowe told ABC News the majority of their welfare checks require no further assistance from the team, as “the people affected are self-sufficient and independent.”
While many people have been evacuated throughout the flooding, some are now sheltering in isolated areas, relying on food and water deliveries from authorities, Kentucky National Guard crew chief Shaun Morris told ABC News.
Morris said flooding conditions seem to be improving, but that debris and damages have left many roads and bridges impassable, making his airborne crews essential to the relief effort.
Beshear said many roads and bridges have been “just eaten away.”
There is a Team Kentucky Flood Relief Fund that has raised over $3 million in donations for affected families, Beshear said.
The first funds will go toward funerals for those who were killed in the floods, Beshear said.
“A lot of the grief that we’ve suppressed these last seven days trying to get the mud out and take care of each other…it’s going to come to the surface,” Beshear said. “Remember it’s okay not to be okay. I don’t think our brains or our hearts are designed to deal with trauma and loss at this level.”
(NEW YORK) — Children as young as 9 years old have engaged in disordered eating behaviors, according to a new analysis published in JAMA this week.
The analysis, which was published Monday and based on data from nearly 12,000 children, showed that 5% of children — both boys and girls — engaged in binge eating, one of many types of disordered eating behaviors.
“It starts younger than a lot of us may think,” ABC News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said on “Good Morning America” Wednesday.
Disordered eating behaviors can lead to eating disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, where someone may avoid or severely restrict the amount of food they eat; bulimia nervosa, where someone may overeat and then vomit or overexercise afterward; and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), an extreme version of picky eating, where someone is selective about the foods they eat.
Researchers say such issues are common: More than 28 million in the U.S. are living with an eating disorder, which often starts during the teenage years.
“When they found 9- [and] 10-year-olds starting to engage in binge eating, that really shifts our timeline to try to be more aware earlier and try to intervene,” Ashton said.
How to spot warning signs of an eating disorder
Parents may often be the first to notice disordered eating behaviors at home. Here are some red flags to watch out for:
A sudden change in appetite
Sudden avoidance of meal times
Frequent calorie counting
Overexercising
Poor body image or constant focus on weight or talk of weight gain or weight loss
What parents can do
If parents notice their child may be developing or already have an unhealthy relationship with food, Ashton recommends seeking professional help. As a starting point, parents can begin by initiating a conversation with their child’s pediatrician.
Ashton added that parents should keep their child’s privacy in mind and anticipate kids may act out, especially when they’re nearing their pre-teen years.
If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or NationalEatingDisorders.org.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday that paves the way for Medicaid to pay for abortion services for people having to travel out of state.
Speaking from the White House virtually, Biden continued to criticize the Supreme Court’s June 25 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Today, I’m signing the second executive order that responds to the healthcare crisis that has unfolded since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, and that women are facing all across America,” he said.
The executive order comes just one day after abortion rights activists secured a major win in Kansas, where voters on Tuesday rejected removing the right to abortion from the state constitution.
Biden said the Supreme Court “practically dared women in this country go to the ballot box and restore the right to choose that the Court just ripped away after 50 years.”
“The voters of Kansas sent a powerful signal that this fall the American people will vote to preserve and protect the right and refuse to let it be ripped away from politicians,” Biden said.
The executive order comes just one day after abortion rights activists secured a major win in Kansas, where voters on Tuesday rejected removing the right to abortion from the state constitution.
Biden said the Supreme Court “practically dared women in this country go to the ballot box and restore the right to choose that the Court just ripped away after 50 years.”
“The voters of Kansas sent a powerful signal that this fall the American people will vote to preserve and protect the right and refuse to let it be ripped away from politicians,” Biden said.
The new directive allows the secretary of health and human services to “invite states to apply for Medicaid waivers, so that states where abortion is legal could provide services to people traveling from a state where abortion may be illegal to seek services in their state,” the official said. Technically, these states would apply through what’s known as a “Medicaid 1115 waiver,” according to a senior administration official.
The official noted that when the White House looked into declaring a public health emergency for abortion and what that would allow the federal government to do, this change to Medicaid — an assistance program for low-income patients’ medical expenses — was one of the options. But the White House realized the president could also do it through an executive order instead, which he plans to do Wednesday, the official said.
But the timeline for these changes remains unclear.
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday for more details on the implementation of the executive order for women who want to seek abortion care soon.
“Are we talking about days, are we talking about weeks, are we talking about six months?” Vega asked.
Jean-Pierre said the administration didn’t “have the details to share today but [Health and Human Services] will soon have more on what a waiver could look like and the timeline.”
Biden’s order also directs the health and human services secretary to make sure “health care providers comply with federal non-discrimination laws so that women receive medically necessary care without delay,” according to the White House. That could include “providing technical assistance for health care providers who may be confused or unsure of their obligations in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs,” or providing other info and guidance to providers about their obligations and consequences of not complying with non-discrimination laws.
The order also directs the health and human services secretary to improve research and data collection on maternal health outcomes, according to the White House.
Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. is currently in a race to have the necessary tools and medicines to stop the growing spread of monkeypox, and it may be an uphill battle, according to one vaccine expert.
Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, spoke with ABC News Live Tuesday about the latest developments in the spread of the virus. Hotez said he’s concerned about the trajectory of new cases that are being reported throughout the country and the world.
As of Wednesday, 6,326 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in all states except Montana and Wyoming, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No American has died from the virus, according to health officials. There have been 25,391 cases worldwide as of Wednesday, according to the CDC.
Hotez said the current monkeypox vaccine, JYNNEOS, is effective, but said the current supply may not be enough.
“It’s not dire yet, but the feeling is unless we work pretty quickly we could get there,” he told ABC News.
Monkeypox is spread through skin-to-skin contact, and although most known cases in the current outbreak are among people who identify as gay or bisexual, anyone can get it, Hotez said. As of Wednesday, five children have contracted the virus, the CDC said.
Hotez said the small supply of the vaccine, which was commissioned a decade ago, is the result of U.S. health officials letting a stockpile expire “inexplicably” and doing nothing to replenish it.
“When the outbreak began we only had a few thousands doses and we’re playing catchup ever since,” Hotez said.
The Food and Drug Administration announced last week that it had inspected and approved the manufacturing of 786,000 more doses of JYNNEOS for distribution in the U.S. and that more than a million doses will be available in the coming weeks.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced FEMA administrator Robert Fenton would serve as the White House National Monkeypox Response Coordinator and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis would serve as the White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator.
The pair will “will lead the Administration’s strategy and operations to combat the current monkeypox outbreak, including equitably increasing the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments,” according to a statement from the White House.
Hotez said Biden’s appointees are qualified to lead the task and said one of the issues that they’re going to have to tackle is the vaccine supply. In addition, he said they will have to determine if there will be an increased call to use the antiviral drug tecovirimat, a.k.a. TPOXX, to treat patients while the country replenishes the vaccine supply.
“The problem is this: We don’t have the full armamentarium of tools to control it,” he said. “So we’re in a race trying to…accelerate the control tools, [so] that we have the diagnostics, the drugs and the vaccines versus that steep trajectory of cases.”
(WASHINGTON) — Abortion rights activists on Wednesday were relishing a major victory after Kansas voters soundly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to roll back abortion access in the first state-level test since the Supreme Court overturned Roe. v. Wade.
That win — in a red state former President Donald Trump carried by double digit margins in 2020 — is a clear warning shot for conservative candidates and state lawmakers alike who campaign on Roe’s downfall: Put the fate of abortion in the voters’ hands and suffer the political consequences.
Kansas voters choose to protect abortion access
Several factors may have motivated Kansas voters to defeat the amendment 59%-41%, but left-leaning strategists are likely to paraphrase Barack Obama famously observing, “elections have consequences.”
Those sorts of consequences can be measured in turnout.
On Tuesday, an eye-popping number of voters took to the polls, in near presidential general election-levels. So far, about 900,000 Kansans sounded off — compared to numbers in the 300,000 range in the 2016 and 2014 primaries. The turnout was stunning by any measure, for a primary night in the middle of summer vacation season.
Can Democrats repeat the results in other states?
Beyond the headline there’s layered impact here, as those seeking an abortion in a handful of states bordering Kansas — states that have implemented trigger law restrictions — can legally travel across state lines for the procedure.
While it might be a stretch for Democrats to do too big a victory lap for the cause, never in this midterm cycle has the left had a flare so bright and powerful, especially as down-ballot Democrats inherit the baggage of a generally unpopular president in Joe Biden, staggered inflation numbers, and mounting concerns about inflation.
The White House is championing this win, with Biden releasing a statement that the vote “makes clear” that “the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion.”
But several questions remain, a chief one being whether this voter enthusiasm can be replicated in other deeply red states. And will Republican-controlled legislatures dare to push amendments for fear of the same sort of result?
A winning strategy forward for Democrats to preserve abortion rights remains unclear and will surely be tested in the upcoming August primaries.
Plus, the result in the rest of Tuesday night’s primaries will likely give Democrats more headaches than produce high-fives.
A mixed night for impeachment backers, but a big night for election deniers
Elections in Michigan, Missouri, Arizona and Washington made way for big wins for “the big lie” and saw the end of the reelection road for Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the few Republicans who broke party ranks and voted to impeach Donald Trump. Meijer’s loss is something of a grim prescription for the remaining anti-Trump Republicans — Rep. Liz Cheney take note — who have staked their reputations and job security on the anything-but-MAGA line.
Instead of Meijer, ultra-conservative election-denier John Gibbs advances to the general election. The embers of Democrats’ stoking far-right flames burned in this race, too, with the party’s congressional campaign arm pumping $500,000 in ads boosting Gibbs’ profile in the hopes he would be easier for Democrats to beat in November.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, another vocal anti-Trump Republican who decided to back out reelection, told CNN that “the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) needs to be ashamed of themselves.”
Tricky news in any event for Cheney, who faces her own set of hurdles in the Wyoming at-large primary on Aug.16. A quirk of the Wyoming election rules where Democrats and Independents can change party affiliations at the time of voting introduces a safeguard not accessible to someone like Meijer, however.
If the Republican primary cycle has taught anything, it’s that there is legitimate appetite for election conspiracy among the GOP electorate – or at least, a willingness to support “big lie” candidates despite everything that’s been revealed. FiveThirtyEight estimates at least 120 nominees deny the credibility of the election.
Arizona is something of the ground zero of election denial, where candidates at nearly every level champion a flavor of “election integrity.” In the GOP primary for attorney general, former prosecutor Abe Hamadeh, with a blessing from Trump, will effort to make Arizona great again.
It’s too early to call the results for the Republican gubernatorial primary, where former tv anchor Kari Lake has made a questioning of the election her mantra, turning interviews back on journalists to make her case.
Which sort of Democrat is left to fend off someone like Lake? In Arizona, it will be former secretary of state Katie Hobbs, who already is campaigning against “conspiracies of the past.”
“We need leaders who will look to the future, not conspiracies of the past. Leaders who are doers, not whiners. Do you want a governor whose entire platform boils down to being a sore loser or a governor who will get the job done for Arizona?” Hobbs pitched in her victory speech Tuesday night.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Uvalde, Texas, shooting victim Makenna Lee Elrod loved butterflies so much that they were released at her funeral in June.
Several landed on her siblings and her mother, April Elrod, who said it felt like the 10-year-old was sending them a sign.
“One landed on my shoulder, one landed on her sister’s shoe, which is silly because Makenna is three years younger than her sister but they were the same size shoe and they always fought over shoes,” said Elrod, who spoke with ABC News for her first interview since the tragedy on May 24.
“One landed on her daddy’s tie,” she added.
Elrod recently got a tattoo in Makenna’s honor, she said. Flowers grace her forearm, representing each of her children, and a butterfly sits above Makenna’s flower.
She asked Georgia woodworker Sean Peacock to make her two benches shaped like butterflies in Makenna’s honor, but she didn’t expect he’d make them for free, let alone honor all 21 victims with butterfly benches of their own using donations from GoFundMe.
Elrod has called meeting Peacock “a blessing.” He said the donation is a “love story.”
“He and I’ve been talking since and when I’m having a bad day, he just seems to be the one that messages and says you know, we’re praying for you,” Elrod said. “Her story has brought people closer together. And I mean, what more can you ask for?”
A prayer vigil was held Monday in Uvalde Town Square as the benches were unveiled. The benches were laid alongside crosses that had been put up around the square’s fountain to honor each victim, with many adorned with rosaries, teddy bears, photos and flowers.
Families of several victims joined the Elrod family at the vigil, admiring the benches as the sun went down.
Elrod said Makenna was loved by many, making friends everywhere she went. She said people continue to come up to her and tell her stories about Makenna that she hadn’t heard before.
“When she played softball, she would take an extra 30 minutes to say goodbye at the softball fields before we can leave,” Elrod said.
She was also loved by her teachers, one of whom was a close friend to the Elrods. Irma Garcia, who also died in the shooting, was shielding Makenna during the attack. Elrod herself is a teacher in Uvalde, at Dalton Elementary.
“I knew her and knew what an amazing teacher she was. And so I requested for her to be Makenna’s teacher that year, or this year, and Makenna had a wonderful year. And she was growing. And I mean, she really was having a great year and, and Miss Garcia was an amazing teacher. Amazing,” Elrod said. “And I know that she, that when she left this Earth, that she was being held by Miss Garcia, and she was trying to protect her.”
When people remember Makenna, Elrod wants them to remember her daughter’s bright smile and welcoming demeanor, as well as her faith.
They hope her spirit lives on through a butterfly garden near their home, as well as the memorials of her scattered throughout the city.
“I feel like we’re gonna keep Makenna’s memory alive because we’re gonna love big, like Makenna did,” Elrod said.
(ST. LOUIS) — Nearly 2,500 Boeing workers at three St. Louis-area facilities on Wednesday accepted a contract offer from the plane manufacturer after calling off a strike planned for earlier this week.
In recent weeks, a dispute over the three-year contract centered on retirement compensation. Workers last Sunday rejected an offer that fell short of their demands on that issue, said Jody Bennett of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).
The new contract provides workers with an $8,000 cash bonus, which would be subject to tax withholdings. Alternatively, under the terms of the proposed contract, workers can opt to place the total amount in a 401(k) account, Boeing said.
Under the proposal, the company will automatically put an amount equivalent to 4% of a worker’s pay into the 401(k) each year, the company and Bennett said.
But the new proposal removes the company’s 401(k) match, which featured a dollar-for-dollar company match on 10% of a worker’s pay, the union said. Instead, the company will match 75% on the first 8% of employee contributions.
“Throughout negotiations, the committee worked diligently to educate the membership and bring back an improved offer from the company,” said Tom Boelling, president of IAM District 837, the union local that represents the workers. “We have delivered an equitable contract that will secure the future for the members, their families and future generations.”
The contract includes a $2 per hour increase in the base wage for all employees, which equates to an average 7.2% wage hike, Boeing said. Workers at the three St. Louis-area locations make an average of $29.42 per hour, the union said.
“We’re pleased with the outcome of the vote and we look forward to our future here in the St. Louis area,” Boeing said in a statement.
In 2014, Boeing stopped offering a traditional pension plan for new hires, replacing it with a 401(k) that fails to adequately compensate workers, Bennett said.
The Arlington, Virginia-based company reported $160 million in profit in the second quarter of this year, which marked a 72% decline from the same quarter a year prior.
The company brought in $62.2 billion in revenue in 2021 after a resurgence in sales of its 737 Max, which was grounded in 2019 after two crashes left 346 people dead. The Federal Aviation Agency lifted the grounding order in November 2020.
“Our members at Boeing St. Louis fought hard to ensure they received a contract that compensated them fairly,” Bennett, of IAMAW, said in a statement.
(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Amid growing concerns over the potential threat of monkeypox, executives from Moderna said Wednesday they have initiated a research program to consider whether the company could create a monkeypox vaccine with mRNA technology.
“We’re obviously very aware of the monkeypox concern and obviously very sensitive to recent announcements,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said during an investor call.
He went on, “We did initiate a research program. We are tracking that very closely and obviously, given the recent public health announcements and increasing concern about availability of vaccine supply, we are beginning to look at what it would take for us to use our platform and to provide a monkeypox vaccine — both [to] intervene in the current and the current epidemic but also to try and address long-term issues of supply in this public health threat.”
Domestically and globally, officials have been vocal in their concern that there are not enough monkeypox vaccines to address the emerging crisis. With demand increasing, officials from the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) have reported that a total of 1.1 million doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine for monkeypox, a two-dose regimen, will be allocated to states and jurisdictions across the country. Approximately 1.5 million Americans are currently considered eligible for vaccination, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told ABC News last month.
Moderna will continue to track the monkeypox virus “very closely” given the recent increase in cases domestically and globally and discussions remain pre-clinical, Hoge said. No decision on whether the company will move forward with the creation of such a vaccine has been made, he noted.
“Our platform is pretty well established and our ability to rapidly scale has been demonstrated. If we were to go after a monkeypox clinical development program, it would be to very quickly progress toward an approvable set of endpoints in a clinical study,” he explained.
As seen with the rollout for the COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., any new vaccine would still need to go through the regulatory authorization process, which can take weeks to months, even in special circumstances.
“We need to engage with regulators and other consultations to determine what that path would be,” he added.
Hoge noted that COVID-19 is still a “larger public health threat” than monkeypox at this time and the company remains focused on preparing boosters for the fall.
Of the more than 25,000 monkeypox cases reported globally, over 6,300 cases have been reported in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Cases have been detected in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
