(SPRINGDALE, UTAH) — A 31-year-old woman was found dead at Zion National Park in Utah after her husband reported the couple experienced symptoms of hypothermia while camping in the park.
The husband told authorities the couple were on a permitted 16-mile hike in the park’s Narrows section on Tuesday when they became “dangerously cold” overnight, the national park said in a statement Thursday.
The 33-year-old man went to look for help Wednesday morning, but search and rescue teams determined the woman was deceased after park visitors and first responders attempted to administer first aid, the statement said.
The injured man was taken to the Zion Emergency Operations Center.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Utah Office of the Medical Examiner and the National Park Service are investigating the cause of the woman’s death.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Last week, nearly six months after the mass shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the Uvalde Together We Rise Fund began distributing more than $22 million directly to survivors, families and others affected by the tragedy.
The nonprofit National Compassion Fund, which has distributed donations in more than 50 other similar circumstances — most recently following the mass shooting that killed 10 people and injured three others in Buffalo, New York — did the difficult work of pooling resources from more than 13,000 donors, including local charities, online fundraisers and individuals, and determining who deserves money and how much.
“Donors say, ‘I don’t want to pick and choose,'” Jeffrey Dion, executive director of the National Compassion Fund, which manages the largest pool of Uvalde donations from public and private donors across the country, told ABC News. “‘Why should I help this family and not that family?’ Or ‘I don’t know all the families,’ or ‘Other families don’t have their own GoFundMe. But if I get this, I know I can help everybody.'”
The National Compassion Fund is a partnership between the National Center for Victims of Crime and the survivors and families of others mass shootings — including Columbine, 9/11 and Sandy Hook. The group provides administration, accountability and transparency for money raised in the wake of such tragedies.
Five tiers
The Uvalde Together We Rise Fund began disbursements to its 448 eligible applicants on Nov. 15, the culmination of a months-long process that included two public hearings and multiple closed-door meetings led by a steering committee of 10 community members.
It was ultimately determined that eligibility for compensation would be separated into five tiers and based not on financial need but rather on the level of impact caused by the school massacre, determined by factors like proximity to the event and resulting psychological trauma.
“We have simply been stewards of these funds committed to honoring the intent of more than 13,000 gracious donors to help those directly impacted by this tragedy,” steering committee chair Mickey Gerdes wrote in a statement. “Although these donations could never make the survivors whole, we are hopeful these donations provide the recipients with some comfort knowing that there are many people who wanted to give something to help them in whatever way possible.”
Legal heirs of the 19 students and two teachers killed will receive the highest payments, followed by individuals with physical injuries based upon the number of days hospitalized and the amount of outpatient emergency and non-emergency medical treatment received in the month following the Robb Elementary shooting.
Other categories eligible for compensation include students and school workers who came under gunfire during the shooting and others who were present on campus that day who might be experiencing psychological trauma.
The National Compassion Fund will not disclose the exact monetary amount paid to each family or individual in order to protect victims’ privacy and safety. The group is also working with pro bono legal services to ensure that families who receive public assistance can accept payments without jeopardizing benefits available through government agencies.
One group that will not be receiving any funds: first responders.
It is standard practice, Dion explained, for the National Compassion Fund to exclude first responders because there are often local ordinances that prohibit public employees from receiving compensation or private gifts that arise from their public duties. He also noted that the fund is intended to help those who were there when the shooting started, not those who arrived at the scene later.
“The nature of trauma is that it catches a person unaware, without warning,” Dion told ABC News. “People who have any preparation for what they will encounter, even just a minute or two, are impacted differently.”
Other funds
As survivors and families awaited the distribution of money from the Uvalde Together We Rise Fund, many sought assistance from other, smaller funds in the interim, including the Hope for Uvalde fund administered by the Uvalde Ministerial Alliance, the crisis relief fund organized by Uvalde’s city government, and, most notably, the state-funded Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Program.
The latter, however, has been seemingly mired in controversy.
Immediately after the shooting, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged victims’ families and survivors to apply for the state compensation program, which the state says is designed to “reimburse innocent victims for certain costs related to the crime.” The program reimburses anyone in Texas who’s been a victim of a crime, or is an authorized guardian of a crime victim, an amount up to $50,000.
But according to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, only $76,000 in total compensation has been reimbursed to 332 eligible applicants so far. Much of that sum — roughly $66,000 — was requested for loss of earnings, while roughly $7,300 was reimbursed for replacement of property seized as evidence of a crime scene, and roughly $3,000 was reimbursed for travel costs for families.
Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde, told ABC News that multiple families and survivors have reported to him that they’ve faced difficulties filing claims and getting reimbursed through the state program.
He criticized the state’s evaluation process for being unnecessarily slow and onerous, and accused its leaders of placing “unreasonable obstacles” in front of grieving families.
“You’re dealing with poor people here,” Gutierrez said. “It shouldn’t have to be a situation where you’re out there demanding to get bills from people or to have people go through this paper, email process.”
Christina Mitchell Busbee, the local district attorney who has been helping families and survivors file claims, acknowledged some difficulties, but said her office has helped as many families as possible.
“There have been people that have had difficulty filling it out, but we have assisted as much as we can,” Busbee said. “Once it goes to the attorney general’s office, they then send a packet to these families or to the victims saying we need this from your employer, we need this from you, you may need additional documents … and some people have had difficulty in getting that, but a lot of people that have problems call my office, and we help them as much as we can or they can talk to the AGs office directly.”
In response to questions from ABC News, a representative for the attorney general’s office said the program is “committed to the long-term recovery of victims and families.” Under state law, victims have up to three years to submit receipts or claims for compensation, but can request a waiver to extend the deadline for good cause, especially regarding child victims, the attorney general office’s said. The office added that “many applications for compensation are inactive for long periods of time, but may be reopened upon any new request.”
The attorney general’s office also told ABC News that officials are still reviewing 29 pending cases, and to this point no applicant has been denied victim status.
However the office was unable to answer whether any specific claims or requests for reimbursement have been denied, saying the information is not tracked internally and would “require staff research and analysis.”
Representatives of the attorney general’s office did not comment on other specific questions regarding alleged difficulties with the compensation program.
(NEW YORK) — A guest aboard a Carnival cruise ship has been rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after being reported missing around noon on Thursday.
The missing guest, according to a representative with Carnival Cruise Line, was at a bar with his sister and left to use the bathroom at around 11 p.m. Wednesday night. He never returned, and his sister reported him missing the following day.
Carnival crew searched the ship Thursday but were unsuccessful, later deciding to retrace the ship’s route to find the missing guest.
The U.S. Coast Guard assisted the Carnival crew with search and rescue and confirmed to ABC News that they rescued the man that was overboard the Carnival Valor. His condition has not been disclosed at this time.
The ship was on its way to Cozumel, a Mexican island in the Caribbean, and was released by the Coast Guard to continue to its destination.
The Coast Guard said it will release more information Friday.
(NEW YORK) — Before making a sandwich out of leftovers or a turkey pot pie, be sure to know the fridge life of your favorite Thanksgiving eats.
Here’s how long your leftovers will last in the fridge, freezer or both, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
How long turkey lasts after Thanksgiving
The star protein will last four days in the fridge. In the freezer, it can last four months for best quality — after that span it will dry out and lose flavor.
How to store leftover turkey
Cut the leftover turkey into small pieces and store separately in small, air-tight containers.
How long gravy will last after Thanksgiving
Gravy can last up to four days in fridge and up to four months in freezer.
To easily reheat gravy, add to a sauce pan and bringing to a rolling boil. Cover with a lid to heat all the way through.
How long homemade cranberry sauce stays fresh
The sweet and tart side stays good for a week to 10 days in the fridge. Freezing is not recommended.
Canned cranberry sauce
Store in an air-tight container and refrigerate after opening to keep for up to two weeks. Like fresh cranberry sauce, freezing is not recommended.
How long potatoes and yams stay good after Thanksgiving
The two starches can be stored for four days in the fridge and up to two months in the freezer.
How long stuffing keeps after Thanksgiving
Up to four days in the fridge and two to three months months in the freezer in properly stored containers.
How long pies can last after Thanksgiving
Fruit pies can be kept at room temperature for two days, according to Bettycrocker.com. They can then be stored in the fridge, loosely covered, for up to two more days. An unbaked crust will keep for two months in the freezer, while a baked crust will keep for four months.
More tips for Thanksgiving leftovers
Refrigerate all leftovers within two hours at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or colder.
Leftovers should always be reheated to 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
(NEW YORK) — As the holidays approach, experts estimate that roughly 60% of consumers plan on purchasing gift cards this December, making it one of the most popular gift-giving options. As a $173 billion business, gift cards have come a long way since they were first introduced in 1994.
More than 3.4 billion gift cards were sold in the United States in 2021 and 47% of U.S. adults said they have one or more unused gift cards in their possession, according to Research and Markets. But as environmentally conscious consumers demand more sustainable products, plastic gift cards have often flown under the radar, despite frequently ending up as plastic waste.
“As someone who works everyday trying to reduce plastic pollution, even I did not appreciate how many plastic gift cards are sold in the United States,” Judith Enck, founder of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics, which is working to eliminate single-use plastics and plastic pollution around the globe, told ABC News.
Most of those billions of gift cards are made from plastic, but some retailers, like Starbucks, Apple, and Amazon, have begun to sell paper or cardboard cards, which come from a renewable source and are easier to recycle. The best sustainable option is an electronic gift card, which has zero waste, but the majority are still produced in plastic.
“Seventy percent of them are made from polyvinyl chloride plastic,” Enck said. “The reason we’re so concerned about polyvinyl chloride plastic, or PVC, is because it’s poisonous to produce.”
The Environmental Protection Agency classified vinyl chloride, a key component in the production of PVC, as a hazardous pollutant and human carcinogen. The production and disposal of PVC plastic puts a variety of people at risk of exposure to toxic chemicals.
“I don’t think there’s a risk from handling the PVC cards, but there definitely is a risk from manufacturing them,” Enck told ABC News. “If these cards are being burned, or even going to a permitted municipal waste incinerator in the United States, they pose a problem.”
The EPA is currently weighing whether to classify PVC plastic as hazardous waste, which would force entities to properly discard PVC in a responsible way.
Because it’s so difficult to dispose of, the bulk of PVC waste, including gift cards and bales of cut-out PVC from the production of gift cards, often end up overseas and illegally dumped in countries like Turkey, Malaysia, and Indonesia, experts said.
“The reality is it’s not recyclable and it ends up here, in an agricultural field,” Sedat Gündoğdu, a biologist and professor at Cukurova University in Turkey, who focuses on plastic pollution, told ABC News.
Gündoğdu has collected heaps of discarded gift cards from U.S. and U.K. retailers that have been illegally dumped and buried in agricultural areas across Turkey.
“Users in the United States are throwing out these cards, thinking they’re being recycled, but they’re really being sold to places like Turkey where they get shipped over and they’re just getting dumped,” Gündoğdu said.
Some of the discarded cards Gündoğdu finds are new and unused. Chanda Wicker, a senior vice president at InComm Payments, a payments technology company, told ABC News that the gift card industry is working towards forecasting consumer demand to “prevent over-production of cards and reduce industry waste.”
Wicker said paper cards are typically less expensive than PVC cards to manufacture and that 70% of the cards InComm Payments have purchased from contracted printers are made from paper.
Although plastic continues to remain popular, the Retail Gift Card Association Sustainability Task Force told ABC News it is “working on publishing a Sustainability Best Practice guide” to help retailers “make decisions that drive us towards a more sustainable future.”
If you do want to purchase gift cards this year, both Gündoğdu and Enck recommend e-cards or paper alternatives, and they urge popular gift card retailers and grocery stores to tell companies to stop producing PVC cards.
“PVC cards should be banned because we have paper alternatives, which are less toxic than plastic,” Gündoğdu said.
If you do have old plastic gift cards and want to dispose of them safely, Enck recommends throwing them away in the trash.
“Definitely don’t put it in your recycling bin, and contact companies and tell them to stop making PVC gift cards as soon as possible.”
(DARIAN, CONNECTICUT) — Susan and Ted Holmes opened up their home to Liudmyla and Volodya Stepnyk and their three children, Yulia, Dmytro and Veronika, under the Biden administration’s “Uniting for Ukraine” resettlement program.
The Ukrainian family will celebrate their first Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., gathering around the table and learning about the American tradition and foods. Susan Helms says they feel blessed they can share both cultures with her serving up a dinner at her home — pulling pockets of steamed stuffed cabbage out of a pot on a chilly night in Darien, Connecticut.
“Should we go get our plates and get our halupki?” Susan Helms asked.
Susan Helms says Liudmyla Stepnyk was up late making the dish. It is one of the Ukrainian traditions Liudmyla Stepnyk and her family find comfort in after fleeing their home in Western Ukraine when Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Liudmyla Stepnyk practices some of her English, saying the pockets of cabbage are filled with rice, meat and are boiled. Susan Helms say they look like little presents.
Around the dinner table, the spirit of thanks and giving is felt with the sharing of meals.
The Stepnyk family arrived in August and are still getting used to life in America. Ted Holmes says it’s been a big change for he and his wife, who were empty nesters. He says both families share responsibilities in terms of cooking, which is a mix of Ukrainian and American food.
Ted Helms joked to ABC News that he and Volodya Stepnyk “just eat and show up.”
Susan Helms says she was determined to help once the war began and through her search was able to find relatives in Ukraine and decided to sponsor them to come to the U.S. She and Volodya Stepnyk connected on Facebook.
Under Ukraine’s martial law exemption, men who are raising three children or more can receive a deferment. Volodya Stepnyk says he made the decision to go to ensure the safety of his children. Yulia Stepnyk, who is the oldest of three children says her family first fled to Poland before connecting with Susan Helms and getting approval to come to the U.S.
Under the “Uniting for Ukraine” program, American-based citizens can financially sponsor displaced Ukrainians who are still outside the U.S. They apply to receive a temporary two-year humanitarian live and work visa and go through a vetting process. Susan Helms says once the family arrived, the kids were enrolled in school.
Yulia Stepnyk is 17 years old and in her last year of high school. Her siblings are in middle school and have already celebrated their birthdays in the U.S.
Volodya and Liudmyla Stepnyk say they are trying to make the best life they can for their children and are grateful they could come to America.
All say they are finding peace –something they haven’t felt since leaving their home but still miss the life they left behind.
Yulia Stepnyk has embraced the message of this holiday and said at first it felt strange coming to a new country, but she says she is no longer fearful.
(SAN DIEGO, CA) — Eighteen people aboard a broken-down and adrift boat were rescued off the coast of the United States-Mexico border on Wednesday evening after days without food or water, authorities said.
The U.S. Coast Guard said it received a report around 4 p.m. about a small, motorized boat full of people drifting in international waters about 16 nautical miles offshore of San Diego, near California’s border with Mexico, and dispatched a helicopter crew to help rescue them. The helicopter recovered five women and two young children from the boat, while a Mexican naval vessel rescued the remaining 11 men on board, according to the Coast Guard.
Three people were subsequently transported to nearby U.S. hospitals, the Coast Guard said. Their conditions were unknown.
The occupants — “presumed migrants” — told officials that their boat had broken down and they had been without food and water for five days, the Coast Guard said. Their boat was taking on water but not enough to sink it entirely. They were unable to call for help but a passerby spotted them and contacted authorities, according to the Coast Guard.
None of the individuals were in the water and all were wearing life jackets at the time of their rescue, the Coast Guard said.
Alec Tabak/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll sued former President Donald Trump for the second time on Thursday, alleging defamation and battery under a new law in New York that allows adult sex assault victims to file claims that would otherwise be barred by the passage of time.
New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which took effect on Thanksgiving, opens a one-year window for adult victims to file claims.
Carroll previously sued Trump for defamation over statements he made in 2019 when he denied her claim that he raped her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s. Her new lawsuit alleged a second claim of defamation over statements Trump made last month.
It also alleged battery as she seeks to hold him accountable for the sexual assault that he has long denied.
“Trump’s underlying sexual assault severely injured Carroll, causing significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological harms, loss of dignity, and invasion of her privacy. His recent defamatory statement has only added to the harm that Carroll had already suffered,” the lawsuit said.
Trump called Carroll’s claim “a Hoax and a lie” in a post last month on his social media platform Truth Social. “And, while I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type!” the post added.
“Trump’s false, insulting, and defamatory October 12 statement about Carroll—and his actual malice in making that statement—is fully consistent with his tried-and-true playbook for responding to credible public reports that he sexually assaulted women,” the lawsuit said.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, asked the judge hearing the first lawsuit to deem the second one a related matter.
Carroll’s first lawsuit is pending the outcome of a January proceeding in the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Trump has argued the Justice Department should be substituted as the defendant in the case because, at the time of his allegedly defamatory statements, he was an employee of the federal government, which cannot be sued for defamation.
The Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals, which retains jurisdiction over the conduct of federal government employees, has scheduled oral arguments for January to decide whether Trump was acting in his official capacity as president when he denied Carroll’s rape claim and allegedly defamed her. If so, the case would go away.
President Joe Biden reiterated his call to pursue a ban on assault weapons following the latest mass shooting at a Walmart in Virginia and said it’s “sick” that the U.S. continues to sell semiautomatic weapons.
“The idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick. It has no social redeeming values. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturer,” he said Thursday during a stop at a fire station in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
The chance of a ban actually making its way through Congress is all but impossible now that Republicans have control of the House of Representatives and the need for any legislation to get 60 votes to break a filibuster in the Senate. The president, however, said that will not stop him from trying.
“I’m going to try. I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons,” he said.
The remarks come after a string of mass shootings thrust the issue of gun reform back to the national fore.
The killing in Virginia and a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado have renewed calls by advocates for tighter gun laws, such as a ban on assault weapons like the AR-15.
Biden has been unable to cobble together the bipartisan support needed to get a bill to his desk.
Biden also made brief comments on negotiations on a contract deal between railroad companies and unions to help avoid a strike but said he couldn’t talk about what is holding up each side from reaching a deal.
“I have not directly engaged yet,” Biden said, though his team remains in touch with all the parties involved.
(LOS ANGELES) — Residents in Southern California have more than heavy traffic to contend with this Thanksgiving.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties on Thursday that lasts until Friday morning, indicating critical fire weather conditions.
Wind gusts could approach 70 mph in some parts of Southern California, forecasts show. The dry wind, combined with the parched earth still reeling from a decades-long megadrought, could spread any fires that spark.
Temperatures are expected to reach 80 degrees in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, with the strong winds expected to pass through the canyons.
A high wind warning is also in effect for the hills east of Santa Barbara, including Burbank, Santa Clarita and Malibu.
The winds are leading to a high brush fire potential across the region, largely in part due to the direction of the wind. When the wind comes from the east, it is much drier than winds coming from the Pacific Ocean.
There are also scattered wind advisories for other portions of the southwest, with gusts expected to top 50 mph elsewhere throughout Southern California, as well as in Arizona and into western Texas.
Residents are urged to use caution with anything that can spark a wildfire. Power safety outages are possible in several regions, data from Southern California Edison shows.
