(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Arizona 5, Houston 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland 2, Tampa Bay 1
Detroit 2, Kansas City 1
NY Yankees 8, Toronto 3
Boston 3, Baltimore 1
Minnesota 8, Chi White Sox 4
LA Angels 4, Oakland 1
Seattle 3, Texas 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Washington 3, Atlanta 2
NY Mets 5, Miami 4
Milwaukee 5, St. Louis 1
Chi Cubs 4, Philadelphia 2
LA Dodgers 1, San Diego 0
San Francisco 6, Colorado 3
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PRESEASON
Carolina at Tampa Bay (Postponed)
Washington 3, Philadelphia 1
Toronto 3, Canadiens 0
Columbus 4, Buffalo 1
Chicago 4, Detroit 2
Calgary 4, Edmonton 0
San Jose 3, Los Angeles 1
Vegas 7, Colorado 1
Anaheim 3, Arizona 1
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday asked about the whereabouts of an Indiana congresswoman who was killed in a car crash earlier this year, prompting reporters to ask the White House to explain why he appeared confused and not be satisfied with the answer.
The misstep happened as Biden spoke at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, where his administration pledged $8 billion in an effort to end hunger and decrease diet-related diseases by 2030.
As he often does at such events, Biden was thanking the lawmakers involved in the issue when he mentioned late Rep. Jackie Walorski, who represented Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District as a Republican for nine years. Walorski and two of her aides were killed in a car crash on Aug. 3.
“I want to thank all of you here,” Biden said, “including bipartisan, elected officials like representative of government Sen. Braun, Sen. Booker, Representative Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? I think — she was gonna be here — to help make this a reality.”
It seemed like Biden perhaps realized mid-sentence, when he said, “I think — she was gonna be here.”
Walorski served as co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, and worked with Sens. Cory Booker, Mike Braun and Jim McGovern to pass the bill to convene the White House conference on hunger — the first in 50 years.
After her passing in August, Biden released a statement commending Walorski’s work on food insecurity.
“We may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties … My team and I appreciated her partnership as we plan for a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this fall that will be marked by her deep care for the needs of rural America,” Biden said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was hit with repeated questions on Biden’s mistake during Wednesday’s briefing.
“What happened in the hunger event today?” ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega asked. “The president appeared to look around the room for an audience member, a member of Congress who passed away last month. He seemed to indicate she may be in the room.”
Jean-Pierre responded by saying Walorski was “top of mind” for Biden as he mentioned those in Congress who championed the effort to convene the second-ever hunger conference, and because Walorski’s family will be at the White House on Friday to celebrate the bill signing in her honor.
“So, of course, she was on his mind,” Jean-Pierre said, adding Biden looks “forward to discussing her remarkable legacy of public service with them when he sees her family this coming Friday.”
“But he said Jackie, are you here?” Vega pressed. “Where’s Jackie? She must not be here.”
“I totally understand. I just explained, she was on top of mind,” Jean-Pierre responded.
Several other reporters in the room also pressed Jean-Pierre on the error, with one reporter asking if the late congresswoman were “top of mind,” why Biden appeared to think she may have been in the room. Jean-Pierre stuck to her answer that Walorski was top of Biden’s mind. The apparent gaffe comes as some Republicans question Biden’s mental acuity.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to approve a psychologist for a new round of exams on migrant parents whose children were separated from them by the Trump administration.
The government’s request, filed last week, is part of an ongoing lawsuit in Arizona federal court on behalf of five mothers who were separated from their kids under then-President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy which mandated prosecutions for all illegal border crossings. The mothers are now seeking compensation from the U.S. government for the emotional and mental damages they say they endured after their children were taken from them.
A lawyer representing the families said the women have already undergone psychological evaluations by experts they provided. But the Justice Department, in its court filing, said they would like their own expert, Dr. Ricardo Winkel, to make an assessment.
“Plaintiffs intend to support their claims of injury through expert testimony and have each submitted to multiple mental health evaluations by their own expert. It is standard practice for plaintiffs alleging severe emotional injury to be examined by the opposing party’s expert,” the Justice Department’s filing states.
President Joe Biden condemned and campaigned against Trump’s family separation policy, which Trump initially paused under intense backlash before a judge put an end to the program in June 2018.
Biden previously said he was in favor of compensating families separated at the border.
“If, in fact, because of the outrageous behavior of the last administration, you coming across the border, whether it was legally or illegally, and you lost your child — you lost your child — it’s gone. You deserve compensation no matter what the circumstance,” Biden said in November. “What that will be, I have no idea. I have no idea.”
Around the same time, however, settlement discussions between some of the migrant families and the federal government broke down shortly after Biden dismissed reports that his administration was considering payments of up to $450,000 for families, according to sources familiar with the situation.
“That’s not going to happen,” Biden said in November of that amount.
Government lawyers said in court filings that they hope the additional exams will “develop findings on each Adult Plaintiff’s current psychological condition and prognosis, as well as on the cause or causes of each Adult Plaintiff’s presentation, all of which are central issues in this litigation and matters on which Plaintiffs themselves intend to introduce expert testimony.”
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt — who is working with some other migrant families who were separated under Trump — said he fears that subjecting them to more evaluations could be re-traumatizing. (The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on its latest filing.)
“The American Academy of Pediatrics called it child abuse. Reliving the events is triggering all that trauma, and the government knows that these families suffered severe trauma,” Gelernt told ABC News. Gelernt is the lead counsel in several cases dealing with family separation, including Ms. L v. ICE which led to a court ordering the Trump administration to halt the practice and reunite families.
“This administration should not be hiring doctors to try to downplay the harm suffered by separated families under the Trump administration’s cruel policies,” Gelernt contended in a statement, “especially given that President Biden called those policies criminal and a moral stain on the nation.”
The Justice Department proposed in its filing last week that its expert, Dr. Winkel, would conduct the additional examinations at a time and place “that is agreeable to all interested parties” and would consist of up to four hours for a clinical interview and four hours of testing. Parents would undergo personality and emotional functioning tests as well as trauma-specific exams.
The ACLU has been working with the Biden administration’s Family Reunification Task Force to address the fallout from Trump’s separation policy, but the ACLU says they’re still searching for 151 families who are without their children.
Gelernt said it was clear that the reunited families continue to be traumatized by their experience, adding that some of his clients start crying when they talk about what they went through.
“There is such unbelievable guilt feeling like — could they have stopped the separation? Of course they couldn’t, but [what’s] heartbreaking is to see their little children blame them for not doing more to stop the separation,” Gelernt said. “In some cases, a child will say, ‘Daddy, why didn’t you stop them? Didn’t you love me enough?'”
(WASHINGTON) — The White House said this week that large leaks in undersea gas pipelines running from Russia to Germany were the result of “apparent sabotage.”
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday night that he had spoken with his Danish counterpart about the leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, which he labeled “apparent sabotage.”
“I spoke to my counterpart Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe of Denmark about the apparent sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines,” Sullivan tweeted. “The U.S. is supporting efforts to investigate and we will continue our work to safeguard Europe’s energy security.”
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said the leaks of the pipelines were the result of “apparent sabotage.”
The pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea, were not actually supplying gas to Europe at the time, although both did still contain gas.
“We have been in touch with our European partners there about the apparent sabotage of the pipelines,” she told reporters. “We are supporting European efforts to investigate this. The investigation is still underway, and it could take some time.”
Asked whether the United States would consider the leaks an attack on a NATO ally worthy of retaliation, Jean-Pierre said she wouldn’t “get ahead of the investigation.”
“We have to see who is behind this at this time,” she said.
Some European leaders have gone further than U.S. officials have.
Denmark’s prime minister said Tuesday that “it is the authorities’ clear assessment that these are deliberate actions — not accidents,” although she added that “there is no information indicating who could be behind it,” according to the Associated Press.
The Kremlin said accusations that Russia could be behind the leaks were “absurd,” according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
“It is quite predictable and predictably ridiculous and absurd to make up such theories,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday, noting “this gas costs a fortune but it is now siphoning off into the air.”
Poland’s prime minister called the development “an act of sabotage,” and Sweden’s acting prime minister said “it is probably a case of sabotage,” the Associated Press reported.
Experts told ABC News that only one country — Russia — stood to benefit from the pipeline leaks, although officials have yet to offer evidence Russia was behind them.
“No one aside from Russia stands to gain from sabotaging these pipelines,” said Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
An act of sabotage on this scale fits neatly into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts “to sow confusion and panic in Europe and weaken European solidarity,” Cahill said, but also carries tremendous risk for Moscow.
“If it is true that Russia is culpable, this is Putin cutting off his nose to spite his face,” said Matthew Schmidt, director of the International Affairs program at the University of New Haven.
Also Wednesday, the United States announced $1.1 billion in new security assistance for Ukraine, including long-range missile systems, armored vehicles, radars and more.
ABC News’ Matthew Seyler contributed reporting to this article.
(WASHINGTON) — New — though limited — data released on Wednesday morning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people who haven’t been vaccinated against monkeypox were 14 times more likely to get infected than vaccinated people.
The data is drawn from people who were eligible for a monkeypox vaccine in their states, which mostly includes men who have sex with men or people who have multiple sexual partners. The numbers provide the first sense of real-world effectiveness on the JYNNEOS vaccine, the leading inoculation against monkeypox.
“These new data provide us with a level of cautious optimism that the vaccine is working as intended,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a White House briefing on monkeypox on Wednesday.
Dr. Demetre Daskalaskis, the monkeypox deputy response coordinator for the White House, urged people to share the “early good news.”
“This knowledge is power — and allows people to make more informed decisions about their health and build confidence in this important two dose vaccine,” he said.
Real-world data on the JYNNEOS vaccine, initially designed to fight smallpox, has been limited since the start of the current outbreak
The Food and Drug Administration, the CDC and National Institutes of Health have — largely at the behest of advocates in the LGBTQ community — launched many studies on the JYNNEOS vaccine’s safety and effectiveness since the outbreak began in May.
And though the new data is promising, Walensky also emphasized that it’s just a glimpse. There are still outstanding questions about the full breadth of JYNNEOS’ protection.
For example, the new efficacy rate of the vaccine was based on data gathered two weeks after the first vaccine, not after a full course of two shots, 28 days apart.
The CDC has yet to release data on efficacy after full vaccination, even though two shots is the consensus recommendation among federal public health officials.
“These early findings and similar results from studies in other countries suggest that even one dose of the monkeypox vaccine offers at least some initial protection against infection. That said, we know from laboratory studies that immune protection is highest two weeks after the second dose of vaccine,” Walensky said on Wednesday.
“And it is for that reason that we continue, even in light of these promising data, to strongly recommend people receive two doses of JYNNEOS vaccine spaced out 28 days apart to ensure durable, lasting immune protection against monkeypox,” she said.
More studies on efficacy after two shots are underway, Walensky said.
The CDC also has yet to differentiate the efficacy data between injection methods, which would provide further clarity on any potential differences between the new approach, where a smaller dose is injected just under the skin, and the original approach, where the injection was deeper.
It’s also not clear how much of a role behavioral changes might be playing in the data on the vaccine’s effectiveness.
If vaccinated people are reducing their sexual partners or chances for skin-to-skin contact, that could decrease their monkeypox infection rates, too.
Walensky pledged that more data is coming but that CDC is working to provide all the data it has in real time as soon as it is available — a lesson learned from COVID-19.
“[The] CDC will continue to evaluate how these vaccines are working in the current outbreak through a portfolio of vaccine effectiveness projects that will help us understand the level of protection provided and how long that protection lasts. And we will continue to deliver these data to you as soon as we have them,” Walensky said.
The CDC is also expanding eligibility for monkeypox vaccines to include more at-risk Americans — though the JYNNEOS vaccine is still not recommended for the general population.
The expansion now includes gay or bisexual men who have had one partner in the last six months or received a new diagnosis of one or more sexually transmitted diseases in the last six months. It also includes sex workers.
Though many states and jurisdictions have already expanded eligibility, the CDC’s latest move puts it in closer alignment with local guidance.
(NEW YORK) — When COVID-19 vaccines became widely available, some women reported changes in the timing and length of their menstrual cycles after getting vaccinated.
Now, nearly two years later, a global study has confirmed that COVID-19 vaccination can lead to temporary changes in cycle length for some people.
The study, published in the medical journal BMJ, looked at nearly 20,000 women around the world who self-reported their menstrual cycle through Natural Cycles, an FDA-cleared birth control app.
Study participants who were vaccinated reported, on average, a nearly one-day day increase in the length of their menstrual cycle length after receiving their first COVID vaccine shot, and a half-day increase after receiving their second dose.
Participants who received both vaccine doses in a single menstrual cycle had a nearly four-day increase in cycle length
The study found, like other research has also shown, that the changes to cycle length are only temporary and do not have any long-term effects.
Earlier this year, a smaller study of around 4,000 women found similar results, reporting that a normal menstrual cycle returned within one or two months after getting vaccinated.
The two studies were launched thanks in part to the persistence of women who spoke out on social media and documented their side effects in an online database created by two researchers.
Several months later, in August 2021, the National Institutes of Health announced it was committing $1.6 million in funding to launch studies on the subject at five universities across the country.
Dr. Alison Edelman, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicines, told ABC News earlier this year the research is important because it can help affirm women’s anecdotal experiences and let them know what to expect after getting vaccinated.
“On a personal level, any noticeable change to a person’s cycle — whether it be related to vaccination or other environmental stressors — can indeed feel significant,” said Edelman, a lead researcher on the two studies released so far. “As a clinician, I can help provide them with information about what to expect with vaccination, which might include a slight variation in their cycle length and have them prepared for this possibility so that they do not need to worry.”
Menstrual changes are controlled by a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, along with the ovaries, which use hormones as signals. These hormone signals can be disrupted when the body goes through changes that occur with an infection and even a vaccine.
Getting vaccinated produces a strong immune system response in the days following the shot, which may cause temporary changes to menstrual cycles. Studies have also documented temporary menstrual cycle changes among women who get COVID-19 infections.
Temporary changes to the menstrual cycle should not be a concern for women, experts say. Changes lasting “three months consecutively, or more” are when health care providers typically make investigation or treatment plans, Dr. Jessica Shepherd, OBGYN and chief medical officer at Verywell Health, told ABC News last year.
Edelman and other experts say the findings that COVID vaccination can temporarily affect menstrual cycles do not mean the vaccine impacts current or future fertility.
In February, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said there was “no evidence” that getting vaccinated against COVID-19 impairs fertility.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman and Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) — The man who became paralyzed from the chest down while handcuffed in police custody has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of New Haven and New Haven Police Department officers for $100 million.
According to the lawsuit, Randy Cox, 36, was sitting handcuffed, but otherwise unrestrained, in the back seat of a police van on June 19 when Officer Oscar Diaz abruptly hit the brakes. Former acting police chief Regina Rush-Kittle said in June that this was an evasive maneuver to avoid an accident. Cox was thrown across the back of the van and immediately could not move his body, the lawsuit said.
Cox’s family and his attorneys said the injuries sustained in the vehicle and the alleged neglect from other officers have left him unable to care for himself and leaves him with little opportunity to earn a living for the rest of his life.
“We think that there is no value that can replace the damages and the hurt and the harm and the mental anguish and the torture that he’s endured every day, every hour, every minute, every second, every second of his life,” attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon announcing the lawsuit. “We did not have to file this lawsuit to tell you why the city needs to do the right thing.”
Crump said at least $20-30 million is necessary to maintain Cox’s “basic quality of life.”
Video of the incident released by police showed Cox was handcuffed but not secured by a seatbelt in the back of a police van when a sudden stop caused him to fall headfirst into the van wall. Cox had been arrested and charged with criminal possession of a firearm and breach of peace. As of Tuesday, these charges are still active and awaiting a plea.
After he was “violently thrown” across the van, Cox shouted that he was hurt. Oscar Diaz, the officer who the suit alleges negligence; recklessness; excessive force; denial of medical treatment; and failure to provide medical assistance, said he couldn’t pull over immediately, but did so two minutes later, according to the complaint. Diaz then called 911 so an ambulance could meet them at the detention center.
After arriving at the detention center, before the ambulance arrived, Diaz and other officers removed Cox from the back of the transport wagon, the suit said.
At the center, Cox “indicated several times that he could not move and he thinks he broke his neck,” the suit said. Despite Cox’s plea, the suit said the officers attempted to move him and “place him in a wheelchair to be processed and eventually dragged him to a cell by his shoulder while still in handcuffs.”
Body camera footage shows New Haven officers dragging Cox out of the van, moving him into a wheelchair and asking him, “How much did you have to drink?” followed by statements like, “He is perfectly fine.”
Cox’s sister LaToya Boomer said at a press conference on Tuesday that she wonders how her brother, who was readmitted to the hospital Tuesday for bedsores, would have been progressing had he not been moved so much, or at all, after he was thrown from his seat in the van.
“We don’t want any lip service, we want action,” she said. Boomer called for criminal charges to be raised against officers, saying she wants those responsible for her brother’s injuries to be “fired and arrested.”
Doreen Coleman, Cox’s mother, has taken on the role of her son’s primary caregiver son after the incident. She asked officers to hold themselves accountable for their actions. “Own up to it,” she said at the press conference.
The named defendants, officers Diaz, Betsy Segui, Ronald Pressley, Jocelyn Lavandier, and Luis Rivera, are currently on leave, pending the results of a state investigation into their actions, police said.
Segui declined ABC News’ request for comment; Pressley, Lavandier, and Rivera have not responded. Diaz was not able to be reached.
“I’m not gonna say what those officers felt, but it seems like they thought he was intoxicated. So they weren’t taking his claims as legitimate,” New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday. “We as a police department, especially [with] someone in custody, need to take everybody’s claims legitimately, and build that legitimacy with the community.”
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker told ABC News that, pending the outcome of the investigation, discipline for officers could potentially include being fired. The lawsuit did not come as a surprise for Jacobson and Elicker, who have spoken with Cox’s family, attorneys, and spent time with Cox.
“We are deeply committed to making sure something like this never happens again, and also to ensure that Randy gets justice. And we’ve implemented a lot of different policies, training in the police department to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” Elicker said. “We’ll continue to talk with our attorneys [throughout] this process.”
“What happened to Randy was not right. We’re doing everything possible to ensure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else. And that’s all we can do,” Jacobson said. “We can take the next right step and I feel like we’re doing that to make you know, this such a terrible situation a better situation where, you know, Randy can move on in his life and have what he needs, and we can fix the wrongs in the police department so that this doesn’t happen again.”
The Connecticut State Police are still investigating the incident.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department said it was closely watching the investigation into the circumstances that left Cox paralyzed.
“All suspects taken into police custody must be afforded timely and appropriate medical care in the event of an emergency,” said U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery in a statement in July. “If federal action is warranted, the Justice Department will pursue every available avenue to the full extent of the law.”
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The University of Idaho is prohibiting staff from promoting or providing abortion services while performing their jobs, warning they could be fired or face misdemeanor or felony convictions if they do, according to an email reportedly sent to staff on Sept. 23.
The university told staff they cannot take any action, use or provide institution funds or facilities to: promote abortion; provide or perform an abortion; counsel in favor of abortion; provide referrals for abortion; provide facilities for an abortion or for training to provide an abortion; dispense emergency contraceptives (except for cases of rape); contract with abortion providers; or advertise or promote services for abortion or for the prevention of conception, the Idaho Press reported citing an email it said it had obtained.
The university, according to the report, also advised staff not to provide standard birth control as a state law apparently makes it a felony to advertise or promote any medication or means for the “prevention of contraception.” Licensed physicians and health care providers at student health centers will still be allowed to counsel on and provide birth control. The school’s Counseling and Testing Center will be handling guidance for conversations about abortion that fall under doctor-patient confidentiality, according to a copy of the memo published by the Idaho Press.
The university claimed the new guidance aims to make sure it operates within the confines of state laws, according to the memo obtained by the Idaho Press.
Idaho began enforcing its trigger ban on Aug. 25, banning nearly all abortions in the state, with the exception of abortions necessary to preserve the life of the mother.
If a discussion between a staff member and a student moves to the topic of abortion, staff are instructed to tell students that Idaho law prohibits the university and its employees from counseling in favor of abortion, referring for abortion or promoting abortion,the Idaho Press reported, citing the memo it says it obtained.
Staff will be allowed to direct students to sources of information outside the university and hold classroom discussions on topics related to abortion “when limited to discussions and topics relevant to the class subject,” according to the memo released by the Idaho Press.
Instructors must also remain neutral in these discussions and cannot conduct or engage in discussions in violation of state prohibitions “without risking prosecution,” according to the memo released by the Idaho Press.
While academic freedom allows classroom discussions on topics related to abortion, it does not protect against violations of state laws that prohibit promoting abortion, according to the Idaho Press memo.
Staff can also provide condoms for the purpose of helping prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, but not for the purposes of birth control, the Idaho Press reported, again citing a memo it says it obtained.
The university did not offer abortion services prior to the release of this new guidance and this was “not an activity expected of university employees” prior to the new guidance, but new laws now make it a crime to do so on university time or using university resources, according to the memo.
Any university employee wishing to counsel, promote or advocate in favor of abortion is required to do so outside of the performance of their job duties and without use of any university resources, the memo said.
“This is similar to the university’s policy on political activities which, while recognizing the rights of individuals to engage in political activities, requires that this be done on the employee’s personal time and without any use of university resources,” the memo said.
The University of Idaho did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment or verify that it sent out this memo to staff.
(LOS ANGELES) — A 7-year-old boy is recovering after being attacked from behind by an aggressive mountain lion while walking through a park Monday, authorities say.
The incident took place at Pico Canyon Park, located near Santa Clarita, California, in Stevenson Ranch, when authorities from the Department of Parks and Recreation in Los Angeles County say the boy was suddenly attacked and bitten by a mountain lion as he made his way through the park.
“The young boy — about 7-year-old boy — was walking up some stairs and was attacked from behind by a mountain lion and bitten in the buttocks,” Capt. Patrick Foy from the California Fish and Wildlife Department told Los Angeles ABC station KABC-TV in an interview following the incident.
The boy suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the attack and is expected to make a full recovery, officials said. The park will now remain closed until further notice while authorities carry out their investigation.
“According to Fish and Wildlife authorities, the investigation is being carried out as if this were a confirmed attack, however, the investigation is still ongoing,” said the Department of Parks and Recreation in a statement obtained by ABC News.
As part of the investigation, the boy’s bite wounds were swabbed for DNA to see if they could match it to a known wild cat in the area but, so far, the mountain lion has not been found, according to KABC.
Officials tracking the mountain lion placed a trap in the closed off park to see if they could lure the animal out from hiding.
“In the trap we placed a mountain lion’s favorite food, which is a deer carcass,” Foy told KABC.
If the cat is found and the DNA samples match the boy’s wounds, there is a good chance the mountain lion would be destroyed by authorities.
“Everything we do and every part of our mission is to better help wildlife and people coexist.” Foy explained to KABC. “Having a situation like this where wild animals start attacking — especially small children — that is a super difficult part of our job.”
In the meantime, there are plenty of local area residents who are concerned about their own safety following the sudden attack.
“You gotta understand when you are walking these trails the dangers that you are walking into. … It still terrifies me,” Francisco Salas of Santa Clarita told KABC. “It could happen to me. It could happen to anybody out here.”
Coolio, the Grammy-winning rapper, record producer and actor best known for his 1995 hit “Gangsta’s Paradise,” has died at the age of 59.
His longtime manager, Jarez Posey, confirmed to ABC News that Coolio died at a friend’s house on Wednesday evening. A cause of death has not yet been determined.
Coolio, born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., rose to prominence as a member of the hip hop group WC and the Maad Circle alongside WC and his brother, Crazy Toones, and achieved mainstream success with his albums It Takes a Thief, released in 1994, and Gangsta’s Paradise and My Soul, released in 1995.
Coolio’s single, “Gangsta’s Paradise,” recorded for the 1995 film Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, became one of the most popular rap songs of all time, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and ending 1995 as the #1 single in the United States that year.
The song was later parodied by Weird Al Yankovic as “Amish Paradise.” Though Coolio said he didn’t give Weird Al permission to do so, he later said that the two had made amends.
Coolio had several other hits including 1994’s “Fantastic Voyage,” which peaked at #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100, as well as “1,2,3,4 (Sumpin’ New)” and “It’s All the Way Live (Now).” He also provided the opening track “Aw, Here It Goes!” for the 1996 Nickelodeon television series Kenan & Kel.
Beyond music, Coolio voiced the character Kwanzaa-bot on Futurama, and appeared in such movies as Dear God, Batman & Robin, Submerged and Stealing Candy.
