3 hospitalized, including child, after minivan drives through Pennsylvania festival
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(HARRISBURG, Pa.) — Three people have been hospitalized, including one child and a woman in a wheelchair, after a minivan drove through the Kipona Festival in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
It is unclear if the act was intentional at this time, according to police. The driver is in custody and officials are investigating.
The Kipona Festival is an annual, three-day event held over Labor Day weekend that celebrates the region’s Native American heritage.
During a press conference Monday evening, Harrisburg Bureau of Police Captain Atah Akakpo-Martin said the vehicle came through one of the barricaded areas just after 6 p.m. when festival ended.
The three people who were hit include a 6-year-old boy, who is in critical condition, Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams said. The other two adults, a man in the city’s traffic engineering department and a woman who was in a wheelchair during the incident, are in stable condition, the mayor said.
It is uncertain if the driver was alone in the car or if the driver was injured at the time, officials said. Photos from the scene show the red minivan sustained damage to the front of the vehicle in the incident.
The minivan came to a stop after hitting multiple objects and driving for multiple blocks through the festival, police said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) voted to advance Susan Monarez’s nomination as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday.
The panel voted along party lines 12-11.
Monarez is the first CDC director nominee to require a Senate confirmation after Congress passed a law requiring it in 2022.
If confirmed, Monarez will be the first CDC director without a medical degree since 1953.
Ahead of the vote, in opening remarks, Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accused Monarez of allowing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to spread misinformation about vaccines.
“In my view, we need a CDC director who will defend science, protect public health and repudiate Secretary Kennedy’s dangerous conspiracy theories about effective vaccines that have saved, over the years, millions of lives,” Sanders said.
Monarez was named acting CDC director in January, stepping down after she was nominated for the position in March. It came after President Donald Trump’s first pick, Dr. David Weldon, had his nomination pulled by the White House due to a lack of votes.
Weldon was expected to be grilled on his past comments questioning vaccine safety, such as falsely suggesting vaccines are linked to autism.
Monarez has worked in both the public and private sector — including working in the government under former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as during Trump’s first term. Her work has included strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance.
During her confirmation hearing last month, Monarez expressed support for vaccines, in contrast with Kennedy, who has expressed some skepticism.
“I think vaccines save lives. I think that we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines,” Monarez said.
While Kennedy has previously cited vaccines as a potential reason behind rising rates of autism diagnoses, Monarez said she did not hold the same view.
“I have not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism,” Monarez said when asked by Sanders last month if she agrees with the American Medical Association’s stance “that there is no scientific proven link between vaccines and autism.”
While the CDC director role has been vacant, Kennedy has had final say over some CDC decisions, such as ending recommendations for children and pregnant women to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Additionally, Kennedy recently removed all 17 sitting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent panel that provides recommendations on vaccines to the CDC, and replaced them with seven hand-selected members — some of whom have expressed vaccine-skeptic views.
Public health professionals previously told ABC News that, traditionally, only a CDC director would be able to reconstitute ACIP.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(WHEELING, W.Va.) — The death toll in West Virginia has climbed to six after heavy rains and devastating flash flooding struck the state, according to Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
Two people are unaccounted for, according to the governor’s office, and a state of emergency is in effect.
Flash flooding occurred throughout the city of Wheeling and the towns of Triadelphia and Valley Grove. Roughly 3 to 4 inches of rain fell in the area in a short period of time, prompting significant flash flooding along US 40 (National Road), Middle Wheeling Creek, Little Wheeling Creek and various runs and streams through Ohio County.
On Sunday, a residential building in the city of Fairmont, in Marion County, partially collapsed, prompting the emergency declaration, according to the governor.
Footage from the scene showed water rushing out of the severely damaged structure as emergency crews responded to the scene.
“As flash floods continue throughout North Central West Virginia, emergency officials are on the scene in Marion County at a partial apartment collapse,” Morrisey said in his emergency declaration.
“State resources are being dispatched to the region immediately. Please — stay off the roads. Do not underestimate the strength and speed of these floods. Pray for our friends and neighbors during this challenging time for our state.”
There have been no hospitalization for injuries due to the collapse and an emergency shelter for those who were living in the apartment building has been set up in the Falcon Center on the Fairmont State campus, according to ABC Clarksburg, West Virginia, affiliate, WBOY-TV.
Multiple cars in the apartment parking lot were also totaled, the outlet reported.
Morrisey mobilized the National Guard to support local emergency operations.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A lone wolf actor poses the biggest threat to Fourth of July celebrations in New York and San Francisco, according to multiple intelligence bulletins obtained by ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are concerned about the potential for copycat attacks from the New Orleans terror attack on New Year’s Day, as well as homegrown extremists.
“We are concerned about the potential threat of copycat attacks inspired by the 2025 New Year’s Day vehicle-ramming attack in New Orleans and continued [foreign terrorist organizations] messaging calling for attacks against Western targets,” both bulletins say.
Those who could be inspired by terrorist organizations who are in the U.S., are of concern for law enforcement, according to the bulletins.
In New York, officials are concerned about individuals “motivated by a broad range of racial, ethnic, political, religious, anti-government, societal, or personal grievances.”
“Of these actors, US-based violent extremists supporting FTOs and [Domestic violent extremists] not linked to FTOs represent two of the most persistent threats,” the bulletins say. “Lone offenders, in particular, remain a concern due to their ability to often avoid detection until operational and to inflict significant casualties.”
In San Francisco, “malicious actors, including violent extremists and criminals, could potentially exploit or target First Amendment-protected demonstrations via mass casualty or opportunistic attacks; dangerous, destructive, or disruptive activity; or other criminal disruptions, as we have seen with other events in the past,” according to DHS.
“We remain concerned that these malicious actors and violent extremists may attempt to create public safety hazards using weapons, chemical irritants, bodily fluids, or other hazardous materials, and enter and disrupt designated event areas that are closed to public access,” say both bulletins dated June 23, 2025.
Authorities are also concerned about drones, which may pose a danger to participants, attendees and law enforcement, authorities say.
The conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas is also of concern, and authorities cite last month’s Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado, and bias against the Jewish community as an indicator.
“Individuals with grievances linked to the conflict could also perceive large gatherings, such as Independence Day celebrations, as opportunistic targets symbolic of the West in general,” according to the law enforcement bulletins.
