Pets flee to vacant animal hospital amid California wildfires
(Jon Putman/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Southern California has been severely hit by wildfires, prompting mass evacuations and state of emergency declaration from Gov. Gavin Newsom. The dangerous winds and extreme fire conditions are expected to last through Thursday.
With residents facing evacuation orders, family pets face an uncertain situation.
Many people in the region have exotic pets and care for animals like llamas, horses and goats that need a safe place to go during this dangerous event.
Some hotels have been accommodating pets like dogs and cats, but the sheer number of animal evacuees has strained their capacity. Fortunately for pet owners, veterinarian Annie Harvilicz stepped up to care for animals.
Harvilicz owns a vacant veterinary hospital, which she opened up to house animals affected by the wildfires. The idea came to her after her brother asked for a favor as his family evacuated. They could only take their dog into the hotel they went to, but not their cat or rabbit, so he reached out to Harvilicz for alternate accommodation for those two.
“And when I moved them in, I looked around at the different examine rooms that were empty and thought, you know, we can help here,” Harvilicz told ABC News. “There is a lot of people who are probably in the same situation my brother is in. So that’s when I started getting the word out that we could take in some animals.”
Harvilicz has mainly been helping people who have multiple pets, as hotels may have a limit on how many they will accept per family. She praises the hotels for even taking in pets and is enthusiastic about how many people are calling, ready to help her.
“Most people that are reaching out to me are people ready to help,” Harvilicz said. “There’s probably a 50 to 60:1 ratio between the people who are contacting me to help versus the people who actually need help.”
Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles/ U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The National Transportation Safety Board chairman called for immediate changes at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, saying the current helicopter routes around the airport “pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety.”
Chairman Jennifer Homendy said the NTSB is recommending that the Federal Aviation Administration permanently ban helicopter operations near Reagan when runways 15 and 33 are in use.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has “restricted helicopter traffic from operating over the Potomac River at DCA until March 31,” Homendy said at a news conference Tuesday. “And I want to commend him for that and commend the work of the FAA to also take swift action.”
However, “as that deadline nears, we remain concerned about the significant potential for future midair collision at DCA,” she said.
Homendy outlined a history of close calls at Reagan and offered a solution as the NTSB continues to the investigate the devastating crash between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed all 67 people on board both aircraft.
The crash happened on the night of Jan. 29 when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which had departed from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people on board, was about to land at Reagan (DCA). The three soldiers on the helicopter were conducting an annual training flight and night vision goggle check ride for one of the pilots at the time when the two aircraft collided. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River.
Between October 2021 and December 2024, there were 944,179 commercial operations at Reagan, Homendy said. During that time, there were 15,214 close proximity events between commercial airplanes and helicopters, she said.
Encounters between helicopters and commercial aircraft near Reagan show that, from 2011 through 2024, a vast majority of reported events occurred on approach to landing, she said.
Homendy said last month that there was no indication the helicopter crew involved in the January crash could tell there was an impending collision.
The soldiers may have had “bad data” on the altitude from their altimeter, as the pilots had differing altitudes in the seconds before the crash, Homendy said. One helicopter pilot thought they were at 400 feet and the other thought they were at 300 feet.
The transmission from the tower that instructed the helicopter to go behind the plane may not have been heard by the crew because the pilot may have keyed her radio at the same second and stepped on the transmission from ATC, the NTSB added.
The Black Hawk crew was likely wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight, Homendy said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Regina Mullen, mother of, Kyle, a Navy SEAL that died in February 2022/ABC News
(NEW YORK) –The mother of a Navy SEAL recruit who died after completing “hell week” training has told ABC News that the cases against the men she blames for her son’s death were dismissed by the Navy and she says she hasn’t been told why.
In February 2022, 24-year-old Kyle Mullen died after successfully endured the 120-hour week of brutal training that’s designed to push Navy SEAL candidates to their physical and mental limits.
His mother, Regina Mullen, is now demanding accountability for his death.
Mullen recounted parts of her son’s story on “Good Morning America” in an interview with ABC News’ Will Reeve airing on Tuesday morning.
“I got a text. It said, ‘Hell Week Secured!’” Mullen told “GMA.” “So I immediately called him and he answered and he was out of breath and he said, ‘Hey mom, I did it. Hell Week secured.’ And I said, First I’m like, ‘my God, you’re all happy.’ And then I’m like, ‘wait a minute, you all right? Are you in a hospital? You don’t sound good.’”
“All he said to me is, ‘Mom, I love you. Don’t worry about me. And he hung up,” Mullen continued.
Kyle died hours later from bacterial pneumonia, with the final medical check showing swollen legs that required him to be sent back to his barracks in a wheelchair with abnormalities in his lungs and severe trouble breathing.
A Navy investigation cited failures “across multiple systems” that led to a number of candidates being at a “higher risk of serious injury” with “inconsistent medical monitoring.”
Additionally, a “lack of training” among commanding officers and an “at all costs” mindset among the candidates was also cited in the investigation.
“We have a failed leadership and under a command that killed a man unnecessarily and injured many,” said Regina Mullen. “I think it’s pretty reasonable to ask for accountability.”
Mullen insists that Capt. Brad Geary, who was in charge of her son’s trainee class, and Cmdr. Doctor Erik Ramey are responsible.
But now, with the case being dismissed, Regina Mullen said questions still remain about the quality of her son’s medical care and that she has not yet been provided with any answers.
“The Navy’s not giving me what I’m asking for,” Mullen said. “The medical treatment of Kyle’s care — why won’t they provide it? I want the Board of Inquiry to be reinstated. This is what I really want so we can go public.”
A lawyer for Geary released a statement to ABC News saying “this case was badly mishandled from the beginning. When we were noticed for the board of inquiry it became very clear that a comprehensive investigation had never been done and the deciding officer hadn’t had access to all the evidence. Through the discovery process, the Navy was forced to gather all the relevant evidence which made continuing the case unsustainable.”
Ramey’s attorney told ABC News that “we invested a substantial amount of time investigating the case with the assistance of top medical experts. The overwhelming evidence confirmed that Dr. Ramey met the medical standard of care.”
The investigation also looked into allegations of the use of performance enhancing drugs among SEAL candidates. Authorities say they found a bottled labeled as human growth hormone in Mullen’s car. Investigators, however, “determined that [Mullen] died in the line of duty, and not due to own misconduct.”
Mullen says the medical examiner told her they did not test her son for steroid use. “She said that they didn’t test for it because it was irrelevant to the cause of death. Right. For the medical exam, for the Navy medical examiner.”
The Navy has refused to comment, “citing privacy considerations for the officers.”
“Cases sometimes take a long time and that can be frustrating,” Regina Mullen’s attorney, Kevin Uniglicht, told ABC News. “The problem in this case is that when we have a dismissal, we don’t have a basis for it. Secondly, when we’re doing our investigation and we can’t find documents, we have to question, where are the documents? Was there ever treatment? If there is treatment, why didn’t it follow the military’s protocol on medical standards?”
“We’re trying to figure out what they’re hiding. It’s simple as that,” Uniglicht continued.
Since her son’s death, Regina Mullen says she has seen some improvement, with candidate’s vitals being checked more consistently and preventative antibiotics administered prior to “hell week” so sailors don’t catch pneumonia. But, she says, more work still needs to be done.
Mullen said she still lives with the pain of her son’s death every day.
“I’m deflated, I’m upset,” Mullen said. “The pain is unreal for me. I don’t get the call anymore. I don’t get the jokes anymore. I don’t get the little cards. I don’t get that anymore.”
“Before he left the Navy, I said, ‘how am I going to live my life if something happens to you?’” Mullen continued. “He said, ‘Mom, you’re the strongest person I know. You got this.’”
“He was just trying to be a hero and protect people,” Mullen said. “And it happened by his own … own country, by his own military.”
In these booking photos taken Oct. 10, 2024, Erik and Lyle Menendez are shown. Via CRDC.
(LOS ANGELES) — The Los Angeles County district attorney met with the Menendez brothers’ relatives on Friday, but said he is still reviewing the facts in the case and hasn’t yet decided if he’s in support of the brothers’ bid for freedom.
LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said that when he came into office on Dec. 3, he promised to review all the facts in Erik and Lyle Menendez’s case. He said that effort has involved reviewing thousands of pages of confidential prison records, trial transcripts, speaking to all the prosecutors and defense attorneys involved and reviewing court filings.
Hochman said that effort continues, noting that he’s not finished reviewing all the prison files from the brothers’ decades behind bars.
Over 20 Menendez relatives met with Hochman on Friday in their continued push for the brothers’ release from prison.
Hochman described the conversation as “very productive” and “in some ways, an informal, off-the-record discussion.”
“They gave me all their thoughts about what should happen, their experiences they wanted to share, the ultimate direction they wanted this case to go,” he said.
Hochman did not reveal the details of the conversation.
In a brief address to reporters, Anamaria Baralt, cousin of the Menendez brothers, spoke out after the family’s meeting with Hochman Friday afternoon.
“We did have a meeting with the district attorney and we’re grateful for his time,” she said in a statement. “I want to reiterate our position as a family and as the victims’ families that this 35-year process has been incredibly traumatizing for us as I’m sure that you can all imagine.”
She said she the family was hoping to see an immediate release of the brothers, saying that going before a parole board “will only serve to re-traumatize us.”
The previous district attorney, George Gascón, announced in October that he was recommending the brothers’ sentence of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.
The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison, and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.
Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his race for reelection to Hochman.
Erik and Lyle Menendez next appear in court for a hearing in the resentencing case on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.
This comes on the heels of an attorney for the brothers petitioning to move the case from the DA’s office to the California Attorney General’s Office, claiming a conflict of interest between Hochman and Kathleen Cady, whom Hoch just appointed director of the department’s Bureau of Victim Services.
Cady recently resigned as attorney for Milton Anderson, the one Menendez relative who has been pushing to keep the brothers in prison.
Hochman said Friday that Cady is “walled off from the Menendez case.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 of the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, who they gunned down in the family’s Beverly Hills home.
The defense claimed the brothers acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father, but prosecutors alleged they killed for money.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were 21 and 18 at the time of the crime, respectively, were sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.
Besides the resentencing, the brothers have been pursuing two other paths to freedom.
In 2023, the brothers filed a habeas corpus petition for a review of new evidence not presented at trial.
They also submitted a request for clemency to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In November, Newsom said he’d defer to Hochman’s “review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.”
ABC News’ Amanda M. Morris contributed to this report.
