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    5-Year-Old Killed After Bounce House Goes Airborne in Maryland

    Children were inside the play structure at a baseball game when it was carried 15 to 20 feet in the air the by the wind. One child died and another was injured.A 5-year-old boy was killed at a professional baseball game in Maryland on Friday after a bounce house was picked up by a wind gust while children were inside of it, the authorities said.Children fell from the inflatable play structure when it was launched 15 to 20 feet in the air before landing on the baseball field at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, Md., where the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs were playing Friday night, according to a statement from the government of Charles County, Md.The 5-year-old boy, who has not been identified, was airlifted to Children’s National Hospital in Washington and later pronounced dead, according to Jennifer L. Harris, the press officer for Charles County, and the county’s news release. A second child was also airlifted to the same hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.The death took place while the Blue Crabs were playing against the York Revolution in an Atlantic League of Professional Baseball game in Waldorf, about 25 miles south of Washington. The teams then halted play, and the Blue Crabs postponed their games over the weekend.“Our entire organization shares our condolences with the family mourning the loss of a child, and concern for the child who was injured,” Courtney Knichel, general manager of the Blue Crabs, said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them all.”The bounce house was on an elevated, fenced-off surface above right field, according to a report from WRC-TV, NBC’s Washington affiliate. After being lifted off the ground, it crashed on the field near the first-base line.The bounce house is usually set up in an area for children to play in during games, Ms. Harris said in an email.A spokesman for the Blue Crabs could not be immediately reached for comment.Bounce houses have gone airborne and killed children before. This past April, a 2-year-old was killed and another child was injured in Arizona when the wind picked up the bounce house they were in and threw it into a neighboring lot. In 2021, five Australian children died after a bouncy castle was propelled 30 feet in the air during their school’s end-of-the-year celebration.Regency Furniture Stadium in 2008. On Friday, one child died and another was injured during a baseball game at the stadium.Mark Gail/The The Washington Post, via Getty ImagesA study by the University of Georgia found at least 479 injuries and 28 deaths happened in wind-related bounce house incidents around the world between 2000 to 2021.The Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent federal regulatory agency, recommends that bounce houses should not be used when maximum wind speeds exceed 15 to 25 miles per hour. The group advises that if “the tops of the trees are swaying” it may not be safe to use a bounce house. Bounce houses should be secured with at least six anchor points, according to the Amusement Devices Safety Council, Britain’s workplace health and safety regulator. More

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    Robbi Mecus, Who Helped Foster L.G.B.T.Q. Climbing Community, Dies at 52

    Ms. Mecus, a New York State forest ranger who worked in the Adirondacks, died after falling about 1,000 feet from a peak at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska.Robbi Mecus, a New York State forest ranger who led search-and-rescue missions and became a prominent voice within the L.G.B.T.Q. climbing community, died after falling about 1,000 feet from a peak at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska on Thursday. She was 52.Her death was confirmed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where she worked for 25 years.Ms. Mecus, who worked mostly in the Adirondacks, searched for and rescued lost and injured climbers facing hypothermia and other threats in the wilderness. Last month, she helped rescue a frostbitten hiker who was lost in the Adirondack Mountains overnight.At age 44, she came out as transgender, she said in a 2019 interview with the New York City Trans Oral History project. She then worked to foster a supportive community for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning climbers in the North Country of New York.“I want people to see that trans people can do amazing things,” she said in an interview for a climbing website, goEast, in 2022. “I think it helps when young trans people see other trans people accomplishing things. I think it lets them know that their life doesn’t have to be full of negativity and it can actually be really rad.”Basil Seggos, former commissioner of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, called Ms. Mecus a “pillar of strength” and a tremendous leader for L.G.B.T.Q.+ rights, noting she was “always there” for the most difficult rescues and crises.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Crew Member Working on Marvel’s ‘Wonder Man’ Dies in Fall

    The worker fell from a catwalk at Radford Studios early Tuesday, officials said.A crew member working on the set of Marvel Studios’ “Wonder Man” TV series at Radford Studios in Los Angeles died on Tuesday after falling from a catwalk, officials said.The man who died worked as a rigger, Deadline reported, and he died on set. A Marvel spokesperson confirmed those details in a statement, adding that “our thoughts and deepest condolences are with his family and friends, and our support is behind the investigation into the circumstances of this accident.”Members of the Los Angeles Police Department responded to Radford Street for a death investigation at about 6:55 a.m., said Officer Tony Im, a police spokesman.The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees said in a statement posted on social media that the organization was “shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic loss.”“We are working to support our member’s family and his fellow members and colleagues,” the union said.“Wonder Man,” a Disney+ series that is set to star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, was not filming at the time of the incident. More