Woman suffers burns while walking off-trail in thermal area by Yellowstone’s Old Faithful
(CODY, Wyo.) — A 60-year-old woman was walking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park when she suffered burns from scalding water in a thermal area by Old Faithful, park officials said.
The woman was walking with her husband and their dog in a thermal area near Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon “when she broke through a thin crust” over the extremely hot water, suffering second-degree and third-degree burns to her leg, the National Park Service said.
The woman, who was visiting Yellowstone from New Hampshire, was taken to a park medical clinic and later flown to a hospital for further treatment, officials said.
Her husband and dog were not hurt, park officials said.
“Visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution,” Yellowstone National Park said in a statement. “The ground in these areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface.”
Park spokesperson Linda Veress urges visitors to “follow the beaten path.”
“In thermal areas, boardwalks take you to amazing places, protect the park, and keep you safe,” Veress told ABC News. “People have been severely burned and killed after leaving the boardwalk or reaching into hot water.”
Pets aren’t allowed on boardwalks or hiking trails, or in thermal areas, park officials noted.
The incident is under investigation, park officials said.
(NEW YORK) — A man shot three tree workers while they were clearing trees for a power company before being shot himself by police officers during his arrest, police said.
The incident began near Murphytown, North Carolina, located in the Green Mountain area of Yancey County, when local resident 36-year-old Lucas Wilson Murphy confronted contract workers clearing the right of way for the power company, according to a statement from the Yancey County Sheriff’s Office released on Wednesday.
“Mr. Murphy was armed during the confrontation with the tree service workers, and subsequently, three workers were shot,” authorities said in their statement. “All three victims sustained serious injuries and were transported to area hospitals where they are receiving medical treatment.”
Yancey County Deputies immediately responded to the scene and began to exchange gunfire with Murphy as they attempted to arrest him.
“During this exchange, an officer-involved shooting took place, resulting in Mr. Murphy sustaining an injury,” police said. “He was then immediately taken into custody. Murphy was transported to an area hospital, where he is being treated for his injury.”
Authorities did not release any possible motives in the case but the Yancey County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation confirmed that they are conducting a thorough investigation into the incident.
“I want to start out by saying that my thoughts and prayers are with the Asplundh victims of today’s shooting for a speedy recovery. I am so proud of my incredible deputies and dispatchers! They did an awesome job responding and getting the situation under control quickly,” said Yancey County Sheriff Shane Hilliard in a post on social media following the shooting. “I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Heritage EMS, the out-of-county EMS departments, fire departments, rescue squad, and the other law enforcement agencies that sent personnel to assist.”
The conditions of the three workers are currently unknown and additional information will be released as it becomes available.
(NEW YORK) — As schools and libraries across the country face record-breaking attempts to remove books from shelves, most Americans are opposed to book restrictions in public schools, according to a new survey.
In 2023, the American Library Association (ALA) documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials and resources.
The targeting of unique book titles increased by 65% from 2022 to 2023, reaching the highest level ever documented by ALA.
These efforts have increased alongside state legislation restricting certain school content on topics like race, sex, gender and more.
However, a new study by the Knight Foundation — a nonprofit that provides grants for journalism and the arts — found that two-thirds of Americans oppose efforts to restrict books. There are more strong opponents than strong supporters of book restrictions, with a 3-1 divide among respondents.
The study found that 62% of Americans oppose their state government legislating what content is allowable in school books.
Public school parents are more likely to be in favor of book restrictions, but more than half of parents (59%) still oppose book restrictions. This is lower than the 67% opposition rate among non-parents.
About 7% of parents with reading-age children reported their child reading an age-inappropriate book from school, and 25% of pre-K-12 parents are concerned about this happening in the future.
Classroom or library content restrictions are often based on concerns about what is deemed “age-appropriate” for certain ages — as is the case in legislation in Florida, Utah, Texas and other states.
More survey participants said it is a bigger concern to restrict students’ access to books that have educational value than it is for them to have access to books that have inappropriate content, especially when it comes to students in middle school and high school.
Six in 10 survey respondents saw age appropriateness as a legitimate reason to restrict students’ book access. However, the report found that far fewer say it is legitimate to block access to books that contradict parents’ political views, religious beliefs or moral values.
Most public school parents are confident in the appropriateness of their school’s book selections. The study also found that 78% of all adults say they are confident that their community’s public schools select appropriate books for students to read.
Though the public feels strongly about the issue — 62% call it highly important — very few have taken action themselves on the issue. Only 3% have personally engaged in the debate, according to the report — 2% engaging to maintain access and 1% to restrict access.
Conservatives are over-represented in the support for book restrictions, making up 57% of book restriction supporters but only 27% of all adults, according to the Knight Foundation. Conservatives are also less likely to feel politically represented in public school books.
(NEW YORK) — Police are investigating multiple separate shootings that occurred Monday night on Interstate 5 in Washington state in what authorities called unacceptable “mayhem.”
Six people were injured in six shooting incidents, including a woman who was critically injured, according to the Washington State Patrol.
A suspect whose vehicle was sought in connection with several of the shootings was arrested in the Tacoma area early Tuesday, police said.
In four of the incidents, the victims reported being shot at by a white Volvo, according to Washington State Patrol spokesperson Chris Loftis. Investigators are still working to determine whether all the shooting incidents involved the same suspect vehicle, according to Capt. Ron Mead, the commander of District 2 of the Washington State Patrol, located in King County.
Police are treating this as a mass shooting event, Loftis said.
“The only difference from this and other events that we see across the country in schools and parks and so forth is the area of the shooting was not confined to a very specific place or location,” Loftis told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.
There were two “spasms” of violence along I-5, resulting in the six shooting incidents, Loftis said.
The first occurred over 17 minutes, between 8:26 and 8:43 p.m. local time, northbound on I-5, he said.
It unfolded at I-5 and State Road 18, when “several rounds” were fired from a white Volvo, striking the passenger of a car, Loftis said. The driver took the 320th Street exit and contacted a fire station, and the female passenger was transported to a local hospital, where she remains in critical condition, he said.
A few minutes later, at 8:42 p.m. local time, a victim reported being shot at on I-5 near Martin Luther King Jr. Way and sustained abrasions from broken glass, Loftis said. The victim did not have a description of the suspect vehicle.
One minute later, on I-5 just south of I-90, a victim reported being shot at by an unknown vehicle and sustaining a grazing wound to the leg, Loftis said. The victim was transported to a local hospital as a precaution, he said.
The second wave of gun violence occurred between 10:57 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time, southbound on I-5, Loftis said.
On I-5 at State Road 18 at 10:57 p.m., a driver and passenger reported being shot at by a white Volvo, Loftis said. They sustained non-life-threatening wounds to the legs and have since been released from the hospital, Loftis said.
One minute later, another shooting involving a white Volvo was reported on I-5 near South 375 Street, Loftis said. Windows in the car were broken, but no one was injured, he said.
Then, at 11:01 p.m., on I-5 near 54th Avenue, a victim reported being shot by a white Volvo, Loftis said. The victim was shot in the neck and transported to a local hospital, he said.
A suspect was subsequently identified and arrested in the Tacoma area, police said.
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the home of the possible suspect late Monday, but his vehicle wasn’t there, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said.
Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, a deputy saw the suspect vehicle pull into an apartment complex, the sheriff’s department said. Backup arrived, and deputies followed the vehicle, which was subsequently disabled by stop sticks set up by a Fircrest police officer, authorities said.
“Once the vehicle ran over the sticks it came to a stop and deputies initiated a felony stop,” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said in a press release. “The suspect was compliant and taken into custody by a Fircrest officer and WSP trooper.”
The suspect has been booked into King County Jail on first-degree assault, police said.
State police said they are not releasing the name of the suspect at this time or speaking to an alleged motive.
“I’m not going to give that credibility for the mayhem he created,” Mead told reporters.
All of the victims are believed to have been random in what Mead called an “unwarranted, unprovoked attack.”
“Any one of us could have been that unwitting victim,” he said while decrying the gun violence.
Police said there may be additional victims. A person who was traveling on I-5 to Portland Monday night called police Tuesday to report that their car had been shot, Loftis said.
“They heard the news accounts and realized that they may have been involved in this situation,” he said.
No one was injured in that incident. The person is in the process of traveling to Bellevue to speak with detectives to determine if this is a potential seventh victim of the shooting spate, Loftis said.
“We would like to encourage other folks who may have been in this area last night during these timeframes, if you saw something, call,” he said.
At this time, police said they can only connect the shootings in which the victims reported seeing the white Volvo, Mead said.
“While the timing certainly would suggest that all of these are related, we’re only going to be able to connect what we can connect through physical evidence,” he said. “Beyond that is speculative, and that’s why we will do the investigation to make sure that we can tie them to the additional shootings.”