October 12, 2021 8:45 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Members of the House are scrambling to Washington to pass a short-term lift of the nation’s debt limit. The vote Tuesday will ensure the federal government can continue fully paying its bills into December. House Democrats are expected to have enough votes on their own to ensure that President Joe Biden can sign the bill into law this week. A default would have had immense fallout on global financial markets, and routine government payments to Social Security beneficiaries, disabled veterans and others would have been called into question. But the relief provided by the bill’s passage will only be temporary, forcing Congress to revisit the issue in December.
October 12, 2021 4:44 am
Officials in the Ringgold School District say they were alerted to a possible threat of violence at the High School. In a letter, Principal Jason Minniti says the tip was reported through the Safe 2 Say Something program. An individual was implicated in that tip. Officials then decided to close the High School building. Students are learning remotely through Zoom. Minniti says “extensive security measures are in place to help us maintain a safe campus.” He says “we have excluded the implicated individual from school property. We will continue to investigate to determine any ongoing credibility of threats and follow the recommendations of the Ringgold School Police and local municipal agencies, in accordance with Ringgold School District policy.” The letter asks parents to speak with their children about the importance of school safety and encourages students to feel comfortable in reporting any information they may have that compromises their safety and/or the safety of others.
October 12, 2021 4:19 am
SANTEE, Calif. (AP) – Recordings show a twin-engine plane that killed at least two people and left a swath of destruction in a San Diego suburb nose-dived into the ground after repeated warnings that it was flying dangerously low. The Cessna 340 smashed into a UPS van, killing the driver, and then hit houses just after noon Monday in Santee, a San Diego suburb. The plane’s owner, who may have been the pilot, also died, and an elderly couple on the ground were hurt. Authorities say neighbors helped rescue them from a burning home. Meanwhile, a federal investigator will be on the scene Tuesday.
October 12, 2021 4:17 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – The Biden administration is again urging courts to step in and suspend a new Texas law that has banned most abortions in the state since early September. The latest request came Monday night as clinics in Oklahoma, Louisiana and other states remain busy with Texas patients journeys hundreds of miles away to get care. The law known as Senate Bill 8 amounts to the toughest abortion restrictions in the U.S. It bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant. A federal judge halted the law for a brief 48-hour window last week but it was reinstated after Texas quickly appealed.
October 12, 2021 4:16 am
MIAMI (AP) – Miami officials have decided to fire the city’s new police chief six months into his stormy tenure, after he was lambasted by city commissioners who he accused of meddling in the police department and internal affairs investigations. Miami City Manager Art Noriega said Monday that he suspended Chief Art Acevedo with the intent to terminate his employment. Noriega says the relationship between Acevedo and the organization has become untenable and needed to be resolved promptly. Art Acevedo was recruited by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and was sworn in in April. At two raucous meetings over the past month, commissioners attacked Acevedo and his leadership. The Associated Press was unable to reach Acevedo for a comment about his firing Monday night.
October 12, 2021 4:14 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Blustery winds are still surging through California after downing trees, fanning wildfires and shutting off power to about 21,000 customers in the northern and central regions. Red flag warnings of dry, gusty and dangerous fire conditions are continuing Tuesday in mountains, valleys, canyons and deserts around the state. Pacific Gas & Electric has shut off power to customers in 20 counties to reduce the risk that power lines could be toppled and spark blazes. Meanwhile, winds are pushing a fire west of Santa Barbara through dense chaparral, burning thousands of acres and prompting evacuations of campgrounds and ranches.
October 11, 2021 5:29 pm
SANTEE, Calif. (AP) – Authorities say at least two people were killed and two others were injured when a small plane crashed into a suburban Southern California neighborhood, setting two homes ablaze. The crash happened shortly after noon Monday in the city of Santee, about 20 miles northeast of downtown San Diego. Officials didn’t immediately know conditions of the survivors or whether they were in the plane or on the ground. The FAA says the plane was a twin-engine Cessna. It wasn’t known where the flight originated, how many people were on board, or where the plane was headed. (Photo: CNN)
October 11, 2021 7:42 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Drugmaker Merck has asked U.S. regulators to authorize its promising antiviral pill against COVID-19, setting the stage for a decision within weeks. If cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, it would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, adding a new, easy-to-use weapon to the world’s arsenal against the pandemic. The FDA will scrutinize company data on the drug’s safety and effectiveness before rendering a decision. All COVID-19 drugs now authorized by the FDA require an IV or injection.
October 11, 2021 4:30 am
More than 1,000 Southwest Airlines fights were canceled Sunday, one day after air traffic control issues and bad weather prompted the airline to cancel over 800 flights nationwide, according to airline officials and FlightAware. In a statement released Saturday and obtained by USA Today, Southwest officials said they experienced “significant impact in the Florida airports” Friday due to an air traffic management program implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration because of bad weather. “We are working hard behind the scenes to minimize challenges and fully recover the operation as we take care of displaced crews and customers as quickly as possible,” the statement read. “We will continue to reset our network today and hope to return to close to normal operations as we move into Sunday.’’ However, about 27% of Southwest Airlines’ flights were canceled Sunday, while another 382 were delayed, according to FlightAware, a site which tracks flight data. The cancellations came after officials canceled 24% of Southwest’s flights Saturday. Nearly 1,200 other Southwest flights were delayed that day, according to FlightAware.
October 11, 2021 4:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department says a Navy nuclear engineer with access to military secrets has been charged with trying to pass information about the design of American nuclear-powered submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. In a criminal complaint detailing the espionage-related charges against Jonathan Toebbe, the government says he sold information for nearly the past year to a contact he believed represented a foreign power. That country was not named in the court documents. Toebbe was arrested in West Virginia on Saturday along with his wife. It’s not immediately clear whether either Toebbe has a lawyer.
