9-month-old dead after being found strapped into safety seat by grandmother in hot car for 8 hours
(NEW YORK) — A 9-month-old child has died after being left in a car by the child’s grandmother for nearly eight hours in what authorities are investigating as a heat-related death.
The incident occurred in Beeville, Texas, some 100 miles southeast of San Antonio, on Wednesday when the Beeville Police Department said a child was found unresponsive at approximately 4 p.m. in the child safety seat of their grandmother’s car, according to a statement from the Beeville Police Department.
“Beeville police detectives are currently on the scene of what appears to be a temperature related death of a 9-month-old child,” authorities said in their statement on Wednesday. “A preliminary investigation has determined that the child’s grandmother had left the child in the rear seat of her car in the child safety seat since approximately 8:30 this morning. The child was found at approximately 4pm non-responsive by the grandmother.”
This comes just one day after a 22-month-old toddler was found dead in another alleged heat-related hot car incident in Corpus Christi.
“The incident is being worked as a criminal homicide,” police said. “The Beeville police are being assisted by the Department of Public Safety Texas Rangers. No charges have been filed in connection to this case at this time, but such charges are expected to be filed.”
According to Kids and Car Safety, there have been at least 25 other cases in which children in the United States have died in hot cars in 2024. Texas has the most child deaths caused by hot cars from 1990 to 2023 with a total of 156 deaths.
(NEW YORK) — Nine people are dead and one other has been injured after a vehicle crashed into a canal in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Monday evening, authorities said.
At approximately 7:30 p.m. on Monday, authorities began receiving calls reporting a car in a canal on Southwest Conners Highway near Belle Glade, Florida, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Tom Reyes said in a statement to the media. Once at the scene, authorities found one vehicle upside down with only the wheels visible, Reyes continued.
“Last night in Belle Glade, a tragic crash occurred at the 5800 Block of Hatton Highway, resulting in multiple fatalities. Tragically, Fire Rescue confirmed 4 victims were pronounced deceased on the scene, and 6 were transported to a local hospital where 5 additional victims passed away,” according to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office. “We have one survivor for a total of 10 victims including babies. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families during this heartbreaking incident.”
Fire rescue personnel, including divers, along with the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, responded to the crash, officials said.
The scene has been turned over to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office who will determine the cause of the crash, Reyes said, and the investigation by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office remains open.
(NEW YORK) — On the southeast coast of O’ahu, a group of visitors from Renton, Washington, has arrived to volunteer with 808 Cleanups, a local organization working to remove invasive species from along the shoreline.
“I could not come to Hawai’i, to the island of O’ahu, without giving back to the community,” said first-time visitor Doris Martinez. “Today it’s really about cleaning up all of these bushes here that are not native to the Hawaiian land, which is something that we learned this afternoon.”
Doris and her fellow travelers are participating in “regenerative tourism,” when visitors give back to the community in some way. Efforts such as cleaning up a beach or reef, planting native plants, or helping to rebuild a fishpond are just a few of the ways that tourists can have a positive impact.
Last August, deadly wildfires tore through Maui and laid bare the deep tensions that can exist between visitors and the local community, where some feel the tourism economy is prioritized over the well-being of area residents.
That strain was captured in irate social media posts with images of snorkelers continuing their vacation as the ruins of Lahaina smoldered.
“There’s a snorkel boat with tourists in the water. The same waters that they were still trying to find bodies,” remembered Lahaina resident Courtney Lazo. “It just made your skin crawl.”
Lazo worked tirelessly to save her own home by hosing it down, but the fires ultimately consumed the house that her family had lived in for five generations.
More than nine million visitors a year travel to Hawai’i, with tourism the largest segment of the Hawaiian economy, supporting more than 216,000 jobs.
“That’s our brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas,” said Kalani Ka’anā’anā, the chief stewardship officer for the Hawai’i Tourism Authority (HTA).
But according to Kūhiō Lewis, CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, it comes at a cost.
“Tourism has been economically beneficial to Hawaii’s economy. However, it’s placed a great burden on the people of Hawai’i, as well,” Lewis said.
“With tourism, people make it to be this strong economy,” said Lahaina resident Jordan Ruidas. “But if you look at it, people working in tourism still have to work two, three jobs. So, it’s not as strong as they say.”
Native Hawaiians and residents of the state find some visitors often are culturally insensitive or unaware of the impact of their actions. Social media is rife with videos of tourists hiking out of bounds onto sacred land, urinating on lava flows, or touching endangered wildlife.
“They come here so they can post a video on social media that hopefully will go viral that is extremely disrespectful to our people and our culture,” said Lewis.
“They think this is a playground, they’re on vacation,” said Pā’ele Kiakona, who was born and raised in Lahaina. “You see them all the time going onto the beach, touching turtles and touching the seals.”
Bad behavior persists despite well publicized bans on interfering with wildlife, offenses that can incur up to $10,000 fines.
“We know we can’t keep doing mass tourism in the way that we have in the past,” said the HTA’s Ka’anā’anā.
“Our community wants managed tourism. Our community wants tourism that gives back to local,” Ka’anā’anā added. “So instead of going to Starbucks, can you go to the local coffee shop? Instead of going to the chain restaurant, can you go to…the poke spot, the food truck.”
The Hawai’i Tourism Authority tries to reach out to visitors even before they come to the islands through their website, which offers tips on how tourists can be mindful during their visit. According to Ka’anā’anā, it’s an effort to share “the ideas of aloha and malama. How to take care of one another. How to take care of the place that they’re visiting. How to leave it better than when they found it.”
The HTA now offers visitors a way to volunteer and have a deeper travel experience with their Mālama Hawai’i website. Mālama means to take care of or protect. Along with other sites, like Kanu Hawaii, visitors can find volunteer opportunities that match their interests and travel plans.
“Visitors are looking for a deeper connection,” Ka’anā’anā added. “They’re looking for meaningful experiences that are unique and memorable for that place.”
Hawai’i Gov. Josh Green recently signed a bill bolstering regenerative tourism, supporting programs that will protect Hawaiian resources.
“These bills represent significant steps forward in safeguarding Hawai’i’s environment and promoting responsible tourism,” Green said in a statement.
“We want tourists who want to come here and feel a sense of place or a sense of purpose and help in deeper ways than just throwing money at us,” said Lahaina resident Jordan Ruidas. “Come get your hands in the dirt.”
Back out on the coast of Oahu, Kimeona Kane is the community director for 808 Cleanups.
“We want to give [visitors] an example of what it means to truly engage with a place, understand its history, understand its current situations, and also think about what the future might look like,” Kane said.
“People who came today didn’t want to just take,” said Michael Loftin, co-founder and executive director of 808 Cleanups. “They didn’t want to just be consumers of the islands. They wanted to give back.”
For Doris Martinez, the choice to volunteer was simple.
“This is love. Love in its purest form,” Martinez said.
On Maui, residents are continuing to recover from the devastating impacts of last year’s wildfire.
“It’s really important for people to remember that Hawaii has shown people so much aloha,” said Ruidas. “And right now it’s really a time where I feel like the aloha needs to be shown back to us while we heal and rebuild.”
If you would like to learn more about regenerative tourism and resources in Hawai’i these links can get you started:
(AUSTIN, Texas.) — A Texas woman who self-managed her abortion is suing prosecutors and a local sheriff after she was held in jail for two nights on a murder charge that was ultimately dismissed.
Lizelle Gonzalez, a Star County, Texas, resident, filed a civil rights complaint alleging that hospital staff provided her private information to prosecutors and the county sheriff who later charged her with murder, according to court documents.
Under Texas’ multiple abortion bans, it is not a crime for a woman to obtain or seek abortion care for herself; the abortion bans target physicians and anyone who aids a woman in obtaining or seeking an abortion.
Gonzalez is alleging the prosecutors and the sheriff violated her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights and is seeking over $1 million in damages. Two prosecutors — District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez and District Attorney Alexandria Lynn Barrera — as well as Starr County Sheriff Rene Fuentes and Starr County are all named in the lawsuit.
State law prohibits physicians from providing abortion care and places civil and criminal penalties on anyone who aids a woman in obtaining abortion care unless the mother’s life is at risk.
Complaint alleges privacy law violations Gonzalez says she went to an emergency room in January 2022 after having taken “Cytotec Icetrogen 400 mcg” — otherwise known as misoprotol, one of the two medications used in the abortion pill regimen — to cause an abortion when she was 19 weeks pregnant, according to her complaint.
An exam found no contractions and found a fetal heart rate so she was discharged from the hospital and told to follow up days later, according to her lawsuit.
Less than an hour after she was discharged, she was taken back to the hospital with complaints of abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. No fetal cardiac activity was detected upon examination and a cesarean section was performed. She delivered a stillborn child, according to court documents.
Gonzalez alleged her private medical information was then given to state prosecutors and the sheriff, ultimately leading to her arrest which she says violated federal privacy laws.
Gonzalez alleged in court documents that the district attorney’s office and the Starr County Sheriff’s Office had agreements with a local hospital to report these types of cases. Gonzalez also alleged there are other women who’s health information was also shared for the purpose of investigations and potential indictments.
She alleged that two district attorneys and the Starr County’s sheriff presented false and misleading information to a grand jury to secure an indictment against her, according to court documents.
Gonzalez was arrested in April 2022 and held in jail for two nights before a $500,000 bond was posted and she was released. The charges against her were dismissed two days after she was released.
Due to her indictment and arrest, Gonzalez suffered “humiliation” which has “permanently affected her standing in the community,” she alleged in court documents.
Earlier this year, Ramirez agreed to pay a $1,250 fine under a settlement reached with the State Bar of Texas and to have his license held in a probated suspension for 12 months for his prosecution of acts clearly not criminal under state law. He remains the Starr County district attorney.
Ramirez and Barrera have sought to have the suit dismissed and have argued in court documents that they have “absolute immunity for the individual claims against them because the pleaded facts show nothing other than actions taken as part of the judicial phase of criminal proceedings,” according to court documents.
Fuentes also sought to get the case thrown out and argued that he has “qualified immunity” and argued that she did not specify claims against him specifically, but rather against his office.
An attorney representing Ramirez, Barrera, Fuentes and Starr County declined to comment on the lawsuit and told ABC News all responses will be through court filings.