TYLER — Our news partner KETK reports that an 18-wheeler is jackknifed at I-20 mile marker 553 eastbound, and blocking the right lane, according to the Lindale Fire Department.
Traffic is down to one lane, and drivers are encouraged to slow down and use caution during severe weather.
TYLER — With severe weather hitting East Texas Tuesday afternoon, electric utilities and cooperatives are reporting power outages. Our news partner KETK has a county by county power outage list, you can see it here.
BRENHAM (AP) — The body of a 10-year-old girl who was swept away in rapidly rising floodwaters has been recovered, Brenham Police Chief Mark Donovan said Tuesday.
Her body was found as forecasters warned that Tuesday could bring more heavy rains and flooding to the Houston area and the state’s coast.
Teams of people scoured the city of Brenham on Monday night, using drones with thermal imaging and dogs to try to find the girl. The water rescue operation was scaled back overnight when heavy thunderstorms moved through the area, but four swift water rescue teams resumed operations early Tuesday, the Brenham Fire Department said in a social media post.
The department was working with around a dozen supporting agencies to find the girl, who was last seen at about 4 p.m. Monday.
She was a student from Brenham Elementary School and support services will be available for students and staff, according to a Brenham Independent School District social media post.
“Our hearts are with the student’s family, and we ask our community to keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this incredibly difficult time,” the district said.
The next round of severe storms could bring as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain Tuesday to parts of southeastern Texas, according to the National Weather Service in Houston. Strong rip currents and flooding along Gulf-facing beaches, especially during high tides, was also in the forecast.
A large swath of Texas and parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi were under flood watches early Tuesday.
Just last week, storms drenched much of southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, washing out roads and causing hundreds of flights to be canceled or delayed at major airports.
HALLSVILLE – The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is seeking answers in relation to a murder that occurred in 2013 in Hallsville and has yet to be solved, according to our news partner KETK.
51-year-old Lillian Desiree Descoteau’s body was found by two truck drivers near FM 450 ramp onto IH-20, just south of Hallsville on October 7, 2013, according to officials.
“She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. Descoteau’s body was only clothed in a light blue pullover, a white bra and a shiny diamond stud earring in one ear,” DPS said.
Descoteau had lived in several states across the country, including Alaska, Colorado, Ohio, Georgia and lastly Irving, Texas, where she worked as a commercial driver for a brief period. Continue reading Police offer $6k for information in 2013 cold case murder
AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports the Travis County attorney on Monday sued eight companies owned by the embattled former Austin real estate developer Nate Paul seeking to collect millions in unpaid property taxes. The lawsuits, filed against five limited liability companies and three limited partnerships, demand payment of about $2 million in delinquent property taxes, as well as about $300,000 in legal fees, according to a Monday news release from Travis County Tax Assessor Collector Celia Israel. “Nate Paul has shown a disregard for playing by the rules — that includes paying his property taxes,” Israel said in a statement. Israel said in the news release that repeated attempts to contact Paul regarding the unpaid taxes were unsuccessful.
“Our local taxing units depend on property taxes to plan and build infrastructure like roads and bridges, pay our teachers and public employees and do the critical work of government,” she said in a statement. The lawsuit comes less than a month after Paul was ordered by a federal judge to pay $1 million within two years in a long-running federal financial crimes case. Paul at that time was also sentenced to five years of supervised release, including four months of home confinement. Paul in 2023 was indicted in a dozen federal financial crimes cases. Federal investigators accused him of under-reporting his total liabilities and over-reporting his cash to financial institutions in the U.S. and Ireland, thus influencing mortgage lenders’ decisions to give to Paul to buy commercial properties.
DALLAS COUNTY – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has dropped a lawsuit against Coppell ISD alleging the district was teaching critical race theory in violation of state law.
A Dallas County judge last week granted a joint notice of nonsuit, effectively dismissing the suit.
In March Paxton sued Coppell ISD for teaching “woke and hateful Critical Race Theory” – the idea that racism is systemic and engrained in public policy, and the basis of a legal framework dating back to the 1970s. While it’s generally taught in post-grad and law schools, Texas bars it in K-12 classrooms, though opponents of “CRT” have pointed to lessons about racism and other social justice topics as examples.
In response to the state’s allegations, the district sought sanctions against the attorney general’s office, saying Paxton’s accusations were based on two-year-old, undercover videos that were “heavily edited and manipulated so to be grossly misleading.”
“The facts will show that the Attorney General’s lawsuit alleging violations of the Education Code is frivolous, unreasonable, and without foundation,” the court filing read.
The video’s creator, conservative activist group Accuracy in Media, stood by its claims but did not provide unedited footage as requested earlier this year by KERA.
KERA has reached out to the attorney general’s office and Coppell ISD and will update this story with any response.
Paxton last week sued Austin ISD over similar claims the district is teaching CRT.
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump's plan to promote acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin, who has repeatedly defended Jan. 6 rioters, to the permanent position appears to face an uphill battle after a key Senate Republican said Tuesday he would not support the nomination.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told ABC News that he will not support Trump's nominee to become the next U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., a message he says has been relayed to the White House.
"At this point, I have indicated to the White House I wouldn't support his nomination," Tillis told ABC News.
Tillis met with Martin Monday evening after he publicly expressed reluctance about Martin's nomination due to concerns about his work representing Jan. 6 defendants and past inflammatory comments about the riot.
Martin, Tillis said, did a "good job of explaining how there were people that probably got caught up in it," but that it wasn't enough to satisfy his concerns.
"I think anybody who breached the perimeter should have been in prison for some period of time," Tillis said. "Whether it's 30 days or three years is debatable, but I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on January the sixth, and that's probably where most of the friction was," Tillis said.
Tillis is a key Republican vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee that will be responsible for determining whether to advance Martin's nomination to a final vote on the Senate floor.
Martin has served as the interim U.S. attorney since the start of the administration but his term expires on May 20, meaning he would need to be confirmed by then to continue leading the office.
One path forward is for the chief judge of the D.C. District Court, Judge Jeb Boasberg, to pick the next nominee.
That is extremely unlikely given Trump's apparent disdain for Boasberg who has overseen a number of Trump's related cases.
Boasberg recently found probable cause that the Trump administration acted in contempt of court when officials in March ignored his order to turn around two planes carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
If Tillis votes with all Democrats to oppose the nomination and no other Republicans flip, the committee will tie, and Martin's nomination won't be sent to the floor for a final vote.
But there's still a few ways to get around this. Tillis could choose to vote to advance without recommendation, allowing the nomination to go to the floor of the Senate even without Tillis' support.
Losing any more Republicans on the panel could prove insurmountable.
The timing of a Judiciary Committee vote is also in flux at the moment, as a source close to the confirmation process confirms that Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has not listed a committee vote for Martin on the committee's agenda this week amid growing concerns about his floundering support.
This delay could make it close to impossible for the Senate to take a final vote on Martin before May 20.
Martin, who has been vying to become the top prosecutor in one of the nation's most important U.S. attorney's offices, was a promoter of Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" campaign and was himself seen on the Capitol grounds during the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
His tenure leading the office has been fraught with controversy.
Martin has moved to fire or demote dozens of top career attorneys who investigated the Capitol attack, he has sent threatening letters to top Democrats and other political opponents of President Trump suggesting he would target them with criminal investigations.
He recently had to apologize for his past praise of a Jan. 6 rioter who had a lengthy history of antisemitic statements and who infamously posted photos of himself dressed as Adolf Hitler.
Martin has also had to provide multiple supplemental letters to the committee in recent weeks after failing to disclose numerous media appearances on far-right outlets like InfoWars and Russian-propaganda networks Sputnik and RT.
Trump urged Republicans to vote for Martin, saying on his social media platform Monday evening that "if approved, HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN."
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Do you feel you need an extra level of smartphone security? Find David Rancken’s App Of The Day. It’s called Who touched my phone? You can get Who touched my phone? in the Apple Store.
Lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate have brokered a deal on how to lower Texans’ property taxes, tax-cut proponents from each chamber said Monday.
A group of legislators has agreed to a tax-cut package that would increase tax breaks for homeowners, provide bigger cuts for older and disabled Texans who own their homes, and increase an inventory tax exemption for businesses.
The deal still has to be approved by both chambers. Still, the tentative agreement is a marked difference from the blowup between House and Senate lawmakers over tax cuts two years ago.
On Monday, the mood was more laudatory with each chamber’s chief tax-cut proponents — state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, and state Rep. Morgan Meyer, a University Park Republican — praising each other’s proposals and signaling their intent to pass them.
In all, Texas lawmakers plan to spend $51 billion on cutting property taxes over the next two years — though a final tally wasn’t immediately available Monday. State budget watchers and even some Republican lawmakers worry that Texas lawmakers’ commitments to local tax cuts will not be affordable in the long term.
Legislators appear on track to boost the state’s homestead exemption, which lowers the amount of a home’s value that can be taxed to pay for public schools. Senate Bill 4 from state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, would raise the exemption from $100,000 to $140,000.
When combined with $3 billion in cuts to school tax rates proposed in the state’s upcoming two-year budget, the owner of a home valued at $302,000 in 2024 would have saved more than $500 on their 2024 school taxes, a Tribune calculation shows.
Older Texans and Texans with disabilities would get additional breaks under Senate Bill 23, another Bettencourt proposal, which would raise a separate homestead exemption for those homeowners from $10,000 to $60,000. That means they would see a total homestead exemption of $200,000.
Each proposal has passed out of the Senate. Lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax policy, voted Monday to advance the bills to the full House.
Businesses could see bigger breaks on property taxes they pay on their inventory, often referred to as business personal property. House Bill 9, by state Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-University Park, would exempt up to $125,000 of businesses’ inventory from taxation by any taxing entity, including school districts, cities and counties.
Texas is one of the only states that allows businesses’ inventory to be taxed, but it’s currently exempt from taxation if it’s worth $2,500 or less.
House and Senate lawmakers each had sought to provide targeted tax relief for businesses but had disagreed on how to do it. Initially, Meyer proposed to raise the business personal property tax exemption to $250,000. The Senate wanted to raise it to $25,000 while also providing $500 million in franchise tax credits. They wound up somewhere in the middle.
The Senate Local Government committee passed the House bill by a 6-0 vote May 5, advancing the bill to the full Senate.
Under the proposal, the state would send hundreds of millions of dollars to school districts to offset the cost of raising the exemption. Other taxing entities including cities and counties will have to bear the brunt of the exemption — raising the possibility that they’ll have to adopt higher property tax rates than they otherwise would have to offset the cost of the exemption.
It’s not clear if lawmakers in both chambers have agreed on how much money to send to school districts, who make up the bulk of a property owner’s tax bill, so they can lower their tax rates — a method known as “compression.” Decreasing the tax rate would lower property tax bills for homeowners and business owners alike. A draft of the state’s upcoming two-year budget includes $3 billion for compression.
Meyer had sought an additional $2.8 billion to put toward compression. His proposal hasn’t been scheduled for a vote on the House floor, and neither Meyer or Bettencourt mentioned it May 5.
None of the proposals advancing through the Legislature would directly benefit the state’s 4.2 million renter households — though tax-cut proponents argue renters benefit from cuts to tax rates.
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
EL PASO – The Pentagon has created a second military zone in the El Paso area that U.S. soldiers will patrol as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on people crossing the southern border illegally, even as crossings are at a historic low.
In a statement Thursday, the military’s Northern Command said the latest military zone will be part of the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso. The military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported that the area stretches about 53 miles east to the border community of Fort Hancock, according to Maj. Geoffrey Carmichael, spokesman for the Joint Task Force – Southern Border.
“The establishment of a second National Defense Area increases our operational reach and effectiveness in denying illegal activity along the southern border,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command.
Last month, the Pentagon designated a 60-foot-wide strip of land along the New Mexico-Mexico border as a military zone. On Monday, federal prosecutors charged more than two dozen migrants with violating security regulations after the U.S. Army spotted the group approaching the area and alerted Border Patrol agents. That charge is in addition to the charge of entering the U.S. illegally. Both are misdemeanors.
Geoffrey S. Corn, director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University School of Law and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said that for more than two centuries the federal government has prohibited the U.S. military from enforcing civilian laws, in part because soldiers’ mission isn’t law enforcement.
“They’re trained as warriors,” Corn said.
Still, he said, the Trump administration has found an ingenious way of using the military for immigration enforcement without asking Congress for permission.
Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the U.S. military is prohibited from conducting civilian law enforcement. However, an exception known as the military purpose doctrine allows it in some cases.
“Using the military as part of border security reinforces the perception and the narrative that the nation is under some type of invasion,” he said. “But the facts contradict the assertion of an invasion because the number of border crossings has been steadily dropping for some time now.”
In March, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported encountering 1,627 migrants in the El Paso sector, which includes all of New Mexico’s border as well as El Paso and Hudspeth counties in West Texas. That’s an 87% decrease from August 2024, when the downward trend began.
Aimée Santillán, a policy analyst at the Hope Border Institute, an immigrant rights advocacy group in El Paso, said the “militarization of our border has long been of great concern here in the borderlands.
“This escalation is deeply concerning since it not only represents a further step in criminalizing migrants attempting to seek asylum at the border but has the potential to also affect humanitarian aid, during a time when migrant deaths in the El Paso Border Patrol Sector have been soaring.”
According to federal government data collected by No More Deaths, a migrant aid and advocacy group in Tucson, Arizona, at least 176 migrants died in the El Paso sector in 2024, continuing a decade-long upward trend. The federal government documented one migrant death in the sector in 2014.
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
KILGORE – The Kilgore Fire Department said that the U.S. 259 Bypass in front of Forest Home Baptist Church in Kilgore is closed after a major accident Tuesday morning.
According to officials, the Kilgore Fire and Rescue Unit is on scene of a major motor vehicle accident and the roadway will be closed for an extended amount of time.
The department encourages people to find an alternate route of travel.
TYLER — The North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority (NETRMA) is hosting meetings this week to discuss a proposed extension of Toll 49 out to US Route 271. According to our news partner KETK, the meetings will present members of the public with an opportunity to learn about the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process which is the next step towards extending Toll 49 to US Route 271 from State Highway 110.
The project team will be available to answer any comments or questions the public may have on potential impacts of the expansion.
The meetings will be in-person and online from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday at the Tyler Rose Garden Center at 420 Rose Park Dr. in Tyler and the Longview Exhibit Center at 1123 Jaycee Dr. in Longview.
Visit the NETRMA website here.
(LONDON) -- TThe Israeli military on Tuesday launched an attack on Yemen's Sana'a International Airport and other civilian sites, claiming they were used by Houthi militants.
The strike came two days after a ballistic missile launched from Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthis landed near Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday that the central Yemen airport "is used by the Houthi terrorist organization for the transfer of weapons and operatives, and is regularly operated by the Houthi regime for terrorist purposes."
The airport strike led "to its complete shutdown," the IDF said. Israel also targeted power stations and a concrete factory, which it accused the Houthis of using to build tunnels and military infrastructure.
"This is another example of the Houthi terrorist organization's use of civilian infrastructure for terrorist operations," an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.
Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces' Arabic spokesperson, posted an evacuation warning on social media prior to the strike.
"We call upon you to evacuate the airport area -- Sana'a International Airport -- immediately and warn everyone in your vicinity of the need to evacuate this area immediately," Adraee said. "Failure to evacuate and move away from the place exposes you to danger."
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(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump late Sunday proposed a 100% tariff on foreign-made films, saying the policy would counteract financial incentives that have drawn Hollywood productions overseas.
"WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!" Trump said in a post on social media.
Movie studios have increasingly moved production abroad in recent years as a means of cutting costs, industry analysts told ABC News, but it remains unclear how adding a tariff would succeed in boosting domestic production.
Instead, it could send costs soaring, the analysts said. It could also reduce the number of Hollywood films produced each year and potentially increase ticket prices, they explained.
"Essentially what Trump is trying to do is make it untenable for U.S. movie studios to produce movies abroad -- and the whole idea is that will stimulate production in the U.S.," said S. Mark Young, an accounting professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business who studies the movie industry.
"But it would cost more money for film production in the U.S.," Young added. "Where's that going to come from?"
Here's what Trump's proposed tariff on foreign-made films could mean for Hollywood and moviegoers:
Why are U.S. studios filming some movies overseas?
The rise of streaming services over the past decade fostered a surge in demand for scripted television and movies, as well as a spike in spending among studios, London-based consulting firm Olsberg SPI found last year.
In 2022, 599 scripted series aired in the U.S., registering more than double the 288 scripted series aired in 2012, Olsberg SPI said, noting that growth ebbed in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic but the overall production rate still surpasses what it was a decade ago.
Alongside that growth, the provision of production incentives worldwide surged nearly 40% over the past seven years, Olsberg SPI said, as nations vied for about $250 billion in global content spending.
But the incentives drawing production away from Hollywood aren't all originating overseas; a slew of states have also boosted financial incentives to compete with moviemaking mainstays California and New York.
Financial incentives abroad have caused some productions to shift overseas, but they're hardly the only reason, Jennifer Porst, a professor of film and media at Emory University told ABC News.
COVID-19 lockdowns sent studios seeking alternative locations, as did widespread labor strikes in 2023 and the increasingly global audience with streaming subscriptions, Porst said.
"There are a whole range of reasons for why production comes and goes," Porst added. "Part of that is due to financial incentives."
What is Trump's proposed tariff on foreign-made films?
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump sharply criticized the production of Hollywood films overseas, claiming the trend had "devastated" parts of the U.S.
Trump claimed without evidence that the use of financial incentives abroad amounted to a "national security threat," saying that -- in his view -- such productions involve "messaging and propaganda."
Trump ordered the United States Trade Representative to begin the process of implementing a 100% tariff on foreign-made films.
In a statement on Monday, the White House said the policy hadn't been finalized.
"Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump's directive to safeguard our country's national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again," White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai told ABC News.
The proposal of a tariff on an intangible product like films poses a challenge for policymakers, since the U.S. cannot impose a direct tax on a film as it would a durable good, Tejaswini Ganti, a professor of anthropology at New York University who studies global film, told ABC News.
"If it's a tax on people going abroad to shoot, what is the tax on? Is it going to be, 'Here's the final budget and we'll add a tax on it'?" Ganti said. "What is the thing being taxed?"
Ganti also questioned the notion of a national security risk posed by Hollywood productions made abroad.
"If a Hollywood film is shot, say, in the United Kingdom, I don't understand how that is a national security threat," Ganti said. "It's still an American story, just shot somewhere else."
What could Trump's proposed tariffs mean for Hollywood and moviegoers?
It remains unclear whether Trump's tariff proposal would bolster domestic movie production, analysts said. Instead, the policy may force movie studios to choose between the tax burden associated with foreign-made films or the elevated cost of U.S. production, resulting in more expensive projects, fewer overall films and even less domestic output, they said.
"President Trump figured out the fastest way to dramatically reduce the number of films produced each year in America," Rich Greenfield, a media and technology analyst at LightShed Partners, said in a post on X.
Greenfield followed with multiple rocket ship emojis to indicate the anticipated rise in costs if the tariff plan moved forward.
"It would be a disaster," Young said, noting the likely added cost burden of a potential 100% tariff. "You can't wave a magic wand and expect more money to appear."
In an effort to weather added costs, the film industry may become more reliant on big-budget franchise films, leaving less opportunity for midsize or small-budget movies, Young added.
The extra tax burden could even hit the pockets of U.S. moviegoers, Ganti said.
"Could it lead to higher ticket prices? Sure," Ganti added.
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(WASHINGTON) -- Bird flu is continuing to spread in animals across the United States more than a year after the first human case was detected.
Since then, at least 70 people have fallen ill and at least one death was recorded in Louisiana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of confirmed cases in humans has held steady for almost two months, but hundreds of dairy cows continue to be infected and raw milk samples in several states have tested positive for bird flu, according to federal health officials.
There is currently no evidence the virus is spreading between people, and the CDC has said the risk to the general public is low. However, some experts told ABC News fear the virus could still mutate or adapt to become more severe or transmissible.
Here's the latest to know about the virus and current situation.
Bird flu in the U.S.
Bird flu, or avian influenza, is an infectious viral disease that primarily spreads among birds and is caused by infection with Avian Influenza A viruses
In March 2024, bird flu was reported in U.S. dairy cows for the first time. As of Friday, the virus has infected more than 1,000 herds across 17 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The CDC confirmed the first human case in April 2024 in a Texas dairy worker who was exposed to cows presumed to be infected. This is believed to be the first instance of mammal to human spread of the H5N1 strain.
Bird flu has also been causing outbreaks in poultry, leading to human cases among U.S. poultry farm workers and culling operations workers.
Three human cases have had no known or identifiable exposure to the virus.
Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and in immunology at Duke University School of Medicine, said there has been so much transmission of bird flu in animals that he wonders if mass immunity is far off.
"In terms of the cattle population and other animal reservoirs, I'm starting to wonder exactly how many more cases we'll see because, at this point, we're probably heading toward -- and pun is intended here -- herd immunity," he told ABC News.
Moody said there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission, which he says raises the question of whether or not H5N1 is likely to make that jump.
What is the U.S. doing to fight bird flu?
According to the USDA, the agency is investing $1 billion to fight bird flu, including $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers and $100 million for vaccine research.
Between March 2024 and now, the CDC said it -- along with state and local health departments -- have monitored at least 16,600 people exposed to infected animals and tested at least 880. Meanwhile, USDA is responsible for testing livestock herds.
Moody said ramping up testing on both sides would give public health workers better situational awareness.
"I think the real question comes down to: how much do we want to test animals and people in order to be able to nail down transmission events and really understand how frequently this is happening?" Moody said, "I would personally like to see better surveillance and more coordinated surveillance."
He said he understands this might not be possible due to the allocation of limited resources, but it would provide a better national picture.
"I think that the problem we have right now is that we have an incomplete view because testing of animals falls under one department, testing of people falls under a different department," Moody said. "They don't necessarily communicate in real time with accurate information and, the two agencies in question here, they've got very different purposes."
Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California, Davis Health, said he is worried that there has been a curtailing of testing and surveillance.
"If we don't have the data then we don't know what next steps to take," he told ABC News. "There is increased likelihood that there will be increased spread among animals and humans and, by the time we become aware of increased transmission, then it may be too late for successful mitigation."Under the USDA's National Milk Testing Strategy to test raw milk samples for bird flu, the agency has identified at least seven affected states.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration announced last year it was beginning to sample aged raw cheese to test bird flu, with early results showing most samples were negative.
On the vaccine front, the U.S. has licensed three bird flu vaccines, targeting the H5N1 strain, which are being held in a national stockpile. They are not available to the public and would only be distributed in case of an emergency.
Last year, the World Health Organization it launched an initiative to help accelerate the development of a human bird flu vaccine using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
Earlier this year, Moderna was awarded approximately $590 million from the federal government to help speed up the development of an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine, alongside other influenza vaccines.
What we don't know
Although there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission yet, or that the virus has mutated to become more infectious, Moody said he still worried about mutations and adaptations.
Earlier this year, a dairy cow was found to be infected with another type of bird flu for the first time, which experts have previously said is evidence that the virus is adapting.
"The thing about this virus is that it mutates every time somebody gets infected, right?" Moody said. "We know that there is an intrinsic rate of mutation that the virus has, and as with most mutations, the vast majority … don't lead to any additional pathogenicity or transmissibility."
He went on, "But the more cases that you have, whether that is in chickens or cows or people, the more of those random events are occurring and we know that eventually the virus will probably find a way to increase its transmissibility to people or increase some other property that makes it a problem."
Moody said he is also concerned about reassortment, which is when a hybrid -- or recombinant -- virus, is formed. An example is an individual getting infected with bird flu and seasonal influenza at the same time and a hybrid virus forming as a result.
He clarified that there is no evidence this has happened yet, and that he believes the U.S. is in a better position to respond today if a pandemic-like situation arises, "but nature has a way of surprising us."
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