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Vaccine authorized for emergency use in critically endangered California condors amid bird flu outbreak

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Vaccine authorized for emergency use in critically endangered California condors amid bird flu outbreak



CBS News Sacramento

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California condors will receive a vaccine for a deadly strain of avian influenza that threatens to wipe out the already critically endangered vulture species, federal officials said Tuesday.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service granted emergency approval for use of the vaccine after more than a dozen condors recently died from the bird flu, known as H5N1.

There are fewer than 350 California condors in the wild, in flocks that span from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California, Mexico.

A pilot safety study will begin this month in North American vultures, a similar species, allowing investigators to check for any adverse effects before they give vaccines to the endangered condors, according to an agriculture department statement.

The department approved the emergency vaccination “because these birds are critically endangered, closely monitored, and their population is very small which allows close monitoring of the vaccine,” the statement said.

Over the past year and a half, millions of birds across the U.S. have died from avian flu, including more than 430 bald eagles and some 58 million turkeys and commercial chickens that were euthanized to prevent the spread of the disease.

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California’s population of iconic condors, with their 10-foot (3-meter) wingspans, was nearly wiped out by hunting during the California Gold Rush, as well as by poisoning from toxic pesticide DDT and ingesting lead ammunition.

In the 1980s, all 22 California condors left in the wild were put into captive breeding programs to save the species. Zoo-bred birds were first released into the wild in 1992 and in the years since have been reintroduced into wild habitats.




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California

Car plunges off California’s Devil’s Slide cliff into ocean, killing three passengers: cops

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Car plunges off California’s Devil’s Slide cliff into ocean, killing three passengers: cops


Three people died Friday when their car tumbled down a cliff and into the ocean near the Devil’s Slide on California’s famed Highway 1.

Cops got a call about a single-vehicle crash just before noon that day, forcing police, fire crews and other first responders to mobilize for a cliff rescue, according to SFGate.

The car — a gray two-door sedan — careened off the southbound side of the road and dropped about 300 feet down an embankment between Pacifica and Montara, according to a California Highway Patrol spokesperson and news reports.

Three people died after a car fell off a cliff on Highway 1 in California. KTVU
The crash happened near the Devil’s Slide trail. KTVU

Authorities shut down the road for several hours as rescuers rappelled to the vehicle, which lay on its roof as seawater lapped around the wreckage.

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“It was a recovery mission, and it was steep cliffs and tough terrain,” a member of Cal Fire told Fox 2 KTVU. “The car was partially submerged, so our rescuers were taking on waves.”

The impact was so violent that it catapulted pieces of the vehicle away from the wreck.

When they reached the site, rescuers quickly pronounced two of the vehicle’s occupants dead.

Police at the scene of the deadly single-vehicle accident. KTVU
The car at the bottom of the cliff. KTVU
Pieces of the car near the location of the crash. KTVU

But an incoming high tide curtailed their efforts, which included hauling heavy machinery down the cliff so first responders could cut the car apart and recover the bodies, the station said.

A third person — also dead — was found inside the car on Saturday, the outlet said.

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Cops haven’t released the victims’ identities, and the investigation is still ongoing, the highway patrol said.



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Latest Line: A good week for Kamala Harris, bad week for California unions

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Latest Line: A good week for Kamala Harris, bad week for California unions


Kamala Harris

President Joe Biden ends his re-election bid and supports Vice President Harris, California’s former Senator and Attorney General and San Francisco’s former District Attorney, to run in his place, as Democratic leaders quickly unite in support of her historic campaign.

 

 

 

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Unions

California’s powerful labor unions lose key California Supreme Court ruling unanimously upholding a voter-approved Proposition 22 that allows gig-work companies like Uber and DoorDash to treat their drivers and delivery workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

 

 

 

Gavin Newsom

Democrats’ quick move to support Vice President Kamala Harris for president after President Biden ended his re-election bid snuffed out talk of California’s governor as a viable alternative. But recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling boosts Newsom’s effort to clear illegal encampments of homeless people that have hurt Newsom’s national image.



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California wildfire evacuee shelters with her 7 dogs

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California wildfire evacuee shelters with her 7 dogs


Thousands of firefighters battling a wildfire in northern California are getting some help from the weather just hours after the blaze exploded in size, scorching an area larger than Los Angeles. But it is little consolation to the many who have had to evacuate or have lost their homes to the flames, including evacuee Susan Singleton and her 7 dogs. (AP Video by Eugene Garcia)



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