Category: US

CNN
 — 

The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday and said the agency plans to hold the train company Norfolk Southern accountable for its role in the derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals earlier this month.

Speaking to CNN’s Jason Carroll Thursday morning, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said the agency has full authority to use its enforcement capabilities over the crisis.

“We issued a notice of accountability to the company, and they’ve signed that, indicating that they will be responsible for the cleanup,” Regan told CNN. “But as this investigation continues, and as new facts arise, let me just say, and be very clear, I will use the full enforcement authority of this agency, and so will the federal government, to be sure that this company is held accountable.”

The interview comes nearly two weeks after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, a town of under 5,000 people along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. The derailment was followed by a dayslong blaze and the ordered evacuation of residents until local and state officials declared the air and water safe enough for people to return – about five days after the wreck.

State officials have repeatedly said water from the municipal system – which is pulled from five deep wells covered by solid steel casing – is safe to drink. However, the state’s EPA encouraged residents who get water from private wells to get that water tested, the governor’s office said.

Despite the assurances, a chemical odor lingered days afterward and officials estimate thousands of fish were killed by contamination washing down streams and rivers, fueling residents’ concerns about water and air safety.

Hundreds of East Palestine residents attended a town hall Wednesday night to express their frustrations and mounting distrust. The train operator had agreed to attend but later pulled out of the event due to safety concerns.

Regan visited the town Thursday and observed some of the remediation efforts following the hazardous train derailment. He said the state has primary responsibility over the scene but the EPA was prepared to partner and provide necessary resources.

“We are testing for the full breadth of toxic chemicals that were on that train that was spilled. We have the capabilities to detect every single adverse impact that would result from that spill, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday he has requested the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immediately send medical experts to East Palestine to evaluate and counsel community members with questions or health symptoms.

In anticipation of rainfall, emergency response teams have plans in place to prevent contaminants not yet removed from the derailment site from washing into local waterways during the storms, DeWine said in a statement.

The governor said a chemical plume of butyl acrylate in the Ohio River is currently located near Gallipolis, Ohio, and will be near Huntington, West Virginia, sometime tomorrow. Testing results indicate that the chemical is currently well below a level the CDC considers hazardous, he said. No vinyl chloride has been detected in the Ohio River, he added, though agencies will continue sampling river water out of an abundance of caution.

DeWine said the Ohio Department of Agriculture continues to assure Ohioans that its food supply is safe and the risk to livestock remains low following the train derailment.

Wednesday night’s town hall was filled with comments from frustrated residents unsure of their safety.

“Is it OK to still be here? Are my kids safe? Are the people safe? Is the future of this community safe?” East Palestine resident Lenny Glavan told reporters at the meeting. “We all know the severity of that question, and what’s at stake. Some people think they are downplaying; some people don’t think so – let’s find out.”

Further spurring residents’ questions about safety were crews’ decision to conduct controlled detonations February 6 of some of the tanks that were carrying toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride that has the potential to kill at high levels and increase cancer risk.

The detonation essentially released those chemicals into the air, but officials said they didn’t have other viable options.

“There (were) two options: We either detonate those tanks, or they detonate themselves,” Mayor Trent Conaway told a group of reporters at Wednesday’s meeting. “Yes, harmful chemicals went into the air. I am truly sorry, but that is the only option we had. If we didn’t do that, then they were going to blow up, and we were going to have shrapnel all across this town.”

Conaway also expressed the need for assistance from the EPA.

“I need help,” Conaway told reporters Wednesday night. “I have the village on my back, and I’ll do whatever it takes … to make this right. I’m not leaving, I’m not going anywhere.”

During a Thursday news conference, Regan, the federal EPA administrator, said the community deserved answers.

“I want the community to know that we hear you, we see you, and that we will get to the bottom of this,” Regan said. “We are testing for all volatile organic chemicals, we’re testing for everything. We’re testing for everything that was on that train. So we feel comfortable that we are casting a net wide enough to present a picture that will protect the community.”

Regan added the federal agency “will be here as long as it takes to ensure the health and safety of this community.”

Representatives of the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, planned on attending Wednesday night’s meeting to provide information to residents on how they’re responding to the chemical crisis. But the company backed out, citing threats against its employees.

“We have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties,” the company said in a release.

Nate Velez, who said he lives less than half a mile from where the train derailed, told CNN on Wednesday night that the company’s absence from the meeting was “a slap in the face.”

Velez and his family are temporarily staying in rentals away from the town. He previously told CNN that when he visited the town Monday, a chemical odor left his eyes and throat burning, and gave him a nagging headache.

“Most people did not want to go home, but they had to. So, all the people who had to go home were complaining of smells, pains in their throat, headaches, sickness,” he said. “I have gone back a few times, and the smell does make you sick. It hurts your head.”

Regan, the EPA administrator, was also one of those frustrated by Norfolk Southern’s absence.

“I was extremely disappointed that they didn’t show up at the town hall meeting last night. The public deserves transparency,” he said. “The public deserves to have the latest information. And so it’s our job, as the federal government, to hold this company accountable, and I promise you we will.”

Thousands of fish found dead after Ohio train wreck, residents worried about water safety

Jami Cozza’s family has lived in East Palestine for generations near the contaminated creek, but right now she is staying at a hotel paid for by the railroad due to toxicity from the derailment.

Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon, Cozza said the railroad company told her it was safe to return home after conducting air testing. However, she insisted the railroad company run soil and water tests, and only then did a toxicologist deem her house unsafe.

“Had I not used my voice, had I not thrown a fit, I would be sitting in that house right now, when they told me that it was safe,” Cozza said Thursday.

Cozza said she worried that not all residents are receiving the proper level of testing.

“My concern is how many of those kids are laying in their bed in East Palestine right now that are not safe,” she said. “I absolutely do not trust them.”

The railroad is providing hotel accommodations for her family and has offered to pay all of her moving expenses, according to Cozza.

“It’s not about the money. It’s about our house,” she said.

CNN
 — 

A Shreveport, Louisiana, police officer was arrested Thursday on a charge of negligent homicide in the fatal shooting earlier this month of Alonzo Bagley, an unarmed Black man, Louisiana State Police said.

Officer Alexander Tyler made his initial appearance in court, where a Louisiana State Police investigator told the judge that body camera footage shows that Bagley’s hands were up in the split second after the shot is fired. Investigators said no weapon was found on Bagley.

The officer acknowledged in court that the view from the body camera is obstructed by the way the officer is turned the moment the shot is fired.

Bagley, 43, was killed February 3 after officers responded to a domestic disturbance call at an apartment complex, according to police. When police arrived, Bagley jumped down from an apartment balcony and fled, and after a brief foot chase one officer fatally shot Bagley – who was later found to be unarmed, state police said.

Tyler’s attorney, Dhu Thompson, said he hopes the bodycam footage is reviewed “thoroughly and a decision is made based on facts and evidence.”

“Officers are always faced on a day-to-day basis with dangerous situations like that and at times where they have to make split-second decisions where they’re in a potential life-threatening situation,” Thompson said.

“The mere fact that an argument is being made by the investigator in court that he was unarmed does not necessarily mean that he is not a threat to the officer.”

Bagley’s family was shown the police video of the shooting Thursday morning, according to one of their attorneys. The state police then released what they said were the videos from each of the two officers’ body-worn cameras: one from Tyler and one from an unnamed officer.

The body camera video from the unnamed officer begins when the officers enter the apartment building, walk up stairs and knock, at which point Bagley opens the front door. The officers ask him to step out of his house and Bagley refuses.

The officers then follow Bagley into the house as he says he’s going to put the dogs away. Officers tell him to let someone else in the home do it and continue following him into a room, where he exits onto an outdoor balcony and jumps over the railing, landing on the ground below. The officer goes back through the apartment and then exits the building in pursuit of Bagley, running on foot.

The pursuit lasts about a minute. According to the state police statement on Thursday, it was Tyler who then comes upon Bagley.

A shot is heard as Bagley is shot in the chest. He slowly falls to the ground and says, “Oh no! Oh, God, you shot me.”

According to state police, Tyler “inadvertently” turned off his camera and then turned it back on “within one second” after he fired the shot that killed Bagley.

After Tyler fired the shot, his body-cam video shows Tyler walking back over to Bagley, gun in hand. The other officer turns Bagley on his back as he begins first aid and calls for EMS.

Tyler is audibly distraught, saying, “Come on, dude,” and “Stay with me,” as the other officer performs chest compressions. The other officer is heard telling Tyler to go to the front of the building, which he does as first responders arrive.

Xavier Sudds, Bagley’s brother, told CNN what he saw on the police video less than an hour after watching it for the first time.

Sudds said his brother’s “hands were up” at the time of the shooting – though it is difficult to tell from the video released Thursday. “He was not threatening in any kind of way,” Sudds said of his brother.

Watching the video, he was at first confused, then angry, Sudds told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

“That’s just from not understanding… why did a domestic call turn deadly?” Sudds said. “I think at this point, the only thing I’m wondering is just, you know, the procedure, the procedure. Why did it happen like it happened?”

The state police investigator told the court Thursday that Tyler had his weapon out during the chase, while the other officer holstered his weapon when Bagley jumped from the balcony.

Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux, who opened a Thursday afternoon news conference with a prayer, expressed his regret for not contacting Bagley’s family in the days after the shooting and said he had learned from the experience.

“It was hard for me to watch,” the mayor said of the video of the shooting. “And I’m sure it was excruciating for the family to watch. It is heartbreaking for the family and all concerned. This is the kind of experience I hope no one has to endure.”

Arceneaux added, “Now is the time for all of us to begin the healing process. We should surround the family with our love, support and prayers.”

Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said the relatively new officer’s disciplinary history “had not reached the level where early warning systems” would have brought him to the attention of superiors. Policy violations involving Tyler included one for violence against a suspect, the chief said at the news conference, which was also attended by members of the city council.

Earlier Thursday, Ronald Haley, an attorney for the family, held a news conference with community activists and Bagley family members. Haley praised the rapid arrest of the officer and the release of the video.

Haley said Tyler had 66 seconds after Bagley fled to take non-lethal action.

“A short flight takes place but flight is not a death sentence,” Haley said. “Flight does not mean shoot to kill. Flight does not mean judge, jury and executioner and that’s what happened here.”

Sudds told reporters, “I want Alonzo’s death to mean something at the end of the day. And I know that it will happen and I appreciate everybody’s condolences and prayers but none of that compares to the pain that I’m feeling, the pain that my mom is feeling… That’s going to linger for a while, for a long time.”

Haley highlighted the Louisiana State Police’s swift action in the case and the importance of the body camera footage on CNN’s AC360°.

“If we don’t have this body camera footage, we just have this officer’s word. And we likely do not have an arrest today and this family would be burying their loved one with the cloud of uncertainty,” he said.

After the shooting, Smith said his “heart bled” and the department will “do our very best to make sure that it doesn’t occur again.” He urged the community to “remain patient.”

Bagley’s shooting death occurred about a month after the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, by Memphis officers during a traffic stop that reignited a national conversation about police use of force against people of color, particularly Black Americans.

Bagley had previously sued the police department, alleging excessive force, according to a lawsuit obtained by CNN.

Tyler, on the force since May 2021, was on paid administrative leave as state police investigated the incident, which included reviewing the officer’s body worn camera.

His arrest was based on the findings of the investigators and coordinated with the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office, according to a police statement.

Tyler’s bond was set at $25,000; his next court date is April 3. Before the arrest, Tyler declined to comment to CNN about the incident.

Bagley’s funeral will be Saturday.

Documents show Bagley had a previous run-in with Shreveport police, years before he was killed.

Twelve months after Shreveport police allegedly assaulted Bagley during an arrest in January 2018, he filed a federal lawsuit against the department.

Bagley required “treatment of a broken occipital orbital eye-socket bones, contusions to the head and face, and a number of his front upper teeth knocked out,” the suit says.

During the 2018 incident, officers responded to a domestic dispute between Alonzo and his wife, the complaint states.

Bagley was put into handcuffs that “were placed too tightly” on him and he “maneuvered his hands to the front of his body due to the pain and discomfort of being handcuffed behind his back in the back passenger portion of an SPD (Shreveport Police Department) patrol car,” the suit said.

According to the court filing, Bagley “was not attempting and did not attempt to escape but only rearranged himself out of the painful position he was in.”

One police officer then opened the door and “delivered forceful and several close-fisted strikes to the head and face” and a second officer did not stop the assault, the suit says. Bagley was handcuffed the entire time and offered no resistance, the lawsuit says.

In response to the complaint, the city said that one of its officers did open the door of the patrol car, but was assisting Bagley because he was “attempting to strangle or choke himself with the seatbelt.”

The city went on to say the officer did strike Bagley’s “head and facial area when Plaintiff (Bagley) covered his head with his arms and prevented Officer Kolb from removing the seatbelt and removing Plaintiff from the vehicle.”

It is unclear what the resolution was on the lawsuit.

An attorney who represented Bagley in the case did not return calls from CNN seeking comment.

Bagley was charged with domestic abuse battery and resisting an officer related to the incident. The domestic abuse charge was dismissed, and he pleaded guilty in February 2018 to the charge of resisting an officer, according to court records.

CNN has requested comment from the police department, and filed an open records request with the city to find out more about the 2018 incident.

Tyler was not with the department when the 2018 incident occurred.

Bagley’s family has sued Tyler, seeking more than $10 million in damages, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. The lawsuit alleges that the office violated Alonzo Bagley’s Fourth Amendment rights.

Louisiana State Police said the case is still under investigation.

Asked for his response to the charge of negligent homicide against Tyler, Bagley’s brother said: “My immediate response is, ‘OK, that’s fine,’ but it doesn’t stop there. It can’t stop there. We have to make sure that my brother’s death is not in vain. We have to make sure have transparency, to make sure that we have justice.”

Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 to connect with a trained counselor or visit 988lifeline.org.

CNN
 — 

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center “to receive treatment for clinical depression,” his chief of staff announced on Thursday.

“On Monday, John was evaluated by Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Attending Physician of the United States Congress. Yesterday, Dr. Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” Chief of Staff Adam Jentleson said in a statement.

Fetterman is a freshman senator and was elected in November after suffering a stroke in May of last year.

Senate candidate who had a stroke gives interview. Hear what Dr. Gupta noticed

Fetterman’s wife, Gisele, said on Thursday that she is “so proud of him for asking for help.”

“After what he’s been through in the past year, there’s probably no one who wanted to talk about his own health less than John. I’m so proud of him for asking for help and getting the care he needs,” she tweeted.

She went on to say, “This is a difficult time for our family, so please respect our privacy.”

The statement from Fetterman’s chief of staff announcing the news said, “After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs, and will soon be back to himself.”

it also stated that Fetterman has experienced depression “off and on” over the course of his life, the issue “only became severe in recent weeks.”

Last week, Fetterman’s office announced that after feeling lightheaded, Fetterman went to the George Washington University hospital. He was discharged two days later, and his office said that test results had been able to “rule out a new stroke.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed support for Fetterman on Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is happy to hear the senator is “getting the help he needs.”

“Millions of Americans, like John, struggle with depression each day. I am looking forward to seeing him return to the Senate soon. Sending love and support to John, Gisele, and their family,” Schumer tweeted.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN
 — 

First term Tennessee state representative Justin Pearson says he was trying to honor his ancestors for helping him rise to elected office when he wore his dashiki on the floor of the House chamber during his swearing-in ceremony Feb. 9.

The freshman lawmaker says he was surprised to hear another member, Rep. David Hawk, criticize him for his attire. Pearson says his colleague scolded him for not adhering to tradition where male lawmakers wear suits and ties on the House floor.

In his floor speech, according to the House speaker’s office, Hawk referred to the late Rep. Lois DeBerry, who as speaker pro tempore established a precedent of men wearing a coat and tie in the chamber.

CNN has reached out to Hawk for comment.

“There’s nothing in the rules about attire at all,” Pearson told CNN, adding that he typically wears his dashiki for special occasions.

After the swearing-in, Pearson took to Twitter to denounce his colleague’s criticism, saying, “…a white supremacist has attacked my wearing of my Dashiki.” Pearson added he understands not conforming to the “status quo ought to make some people uncomfortable.”

In response to Pearson, the Tennessee House GOP tweeted that if Pearson doesn’t like decorum rules that were approved in a bipartisan manner, he should “explore a different career opportunity.” The tweet adds that reminding members to follow the approved decorum rules is “far from a racist attack.”

A spokesman for Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton told CNN in a statement: “The speaker will continue to follow the precedent and the path established by Ms. DeBerry to honor her and her incredible legacy within our legislative body.”

Pearson says he will continue to wear his dashiki but will wear a coat and tie with it so he is recognized on the floor and his constituents are represented.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with a dashiki; it’s about who’s wearing it. It’s about us being here,” Pearson told CNN, adding that he wants to make Tennessee more inclusive. “It’s not a problem of dress, it’s a problem of principle that is wrong and lacks inclusivity.”

CNN
 — 

Ending the war in Ukraine on terms acceptable to its President Volodymyr Zelensky will require the West to convince Russian leader Vladimir Putin he’s losing.

Good luck with that.

Ahead of next week’s anniversary of the Russian invasion, US and Western leaders are gearing up for a show of unity and strength designed to establish once and for all that NATO is in the conflict for the long haul and until Moscow’s defeat.

“Russia has lost – they’ve lost strategically, operationally, and tactically,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said on Tuesday. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Wednesday that “Putin must realize that he cannot win” as he explained the rationale for rushing arms and ammunition to Ukrainian forces. And Julianne Smith, the US ambassador to NATO, told CNN’s Becky Anderson that Washington was doing all it could to “continue to apply pressure on Moscow to affect (Putin’s) strategic calculus.”

And in an opinion article by CNN’s Peter Bergen, retired US General and former CIA Chief David Petraeus said the conflict would end in a “negotiated resolution” when Putin realizes the war is unsustainable on the battlefield and on the home front.

The Western rhetorical and diplomatic offensive will ratchet up further as Vice President Kamala Harris heads to the Munich Security Conference this week. President Joe Biden will meanwhile visit Poland and a frontline NATO and ex-Warsaw pact state next week, bolstering his legacy of offering the most effective leadership of the Western alliance since the end of the Cold War.

See bird’s-eye-view footage of Ukraine destroying weapon that rips the oxygen out of humans’ lungs

By most objective standards Putin already seems to be losing. His war aims of crushing Ukrainian sovereignty, capturing Kyiv, toppling an elected government, proving Russian might and severing Ukraine’s relationship with the West have backfired terribly. Russia is a pariah state and its economy is in ruins because of international sanctions. Putin is being branded a war criminal. And far from being cut off from the West, Ukraine is now in the extraordinary position of being effectively a NATO client state propped up by the US and Europe, whose survival, even if there’s an eventual ceasefire deal, will probably require decades of Western support.

Yet Western logic about what is happening in the war may only disguise insight into Putin’s mindset. The Russian leader long saw the world through a different strategic and historic lens. Many foreign observers, though not in the US government, convinced themselves after all that it was not in Russia’s interest to invade Ukraine – but Putin went ahead anyway. He’s showing no sign of being deterred by a year of defeats and a stunning influx of sophisticated NATO weapons and ammunition into Ukraine. He’s sending Russian convict recruits to their deaths in futile World War I-style advances even though Russian forces have already suffered massive losses.

This war is also not some mere territorial dispute he’s likely to give up lightly. It’s born from his belief that Ukraine is not a country and must be folded into Russia. His survival in power could also depend on not being seen to have lost. And while the West says it’s in for the long haul, Putin has already been at war in Ukraine since 2014 after the annexation of Crimea.

A frozen conflict that lasts for many more years and prevents Ukraine becoming whole may be a sustainable position for him. He’s already shown he’s indifferent to massive human losses. And judging by his rhetoric he believes he’s locked into a titanic geopolitical struggle with NATO vital for Russia’s prestige. The question is whether the West has a similar appetite for the long haul.

See why Ukraine thinks Russia will launch new offensive from Belarus

All of this explains why western strategists see the next phase of the war as critical, as Russian forces prepare for an apparent spring offensive and Ukraine awaits the arrival of recently pledged western tanks that it hopes will turn the tide.

NATO’s unity and staying power has confounded skeptics, largely due to Biden’s leadership. But political conditions in Washington and allied nations are not static and could shape Putin’s thinking.

In the US House for instance, some members of the new Republican majority are skittish. Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz last week demanded an end to aid to Ukraine and for the US to demand all combatants “reach a peace agreement immediately.” A bipartisan majority for saving Ukraine still exists in the House and the Senate. But it’s not certain Biden can guarantee massive multi-billion dollar aid packages for Ukraine in perpetuity. And US aid might be in serious doubt if ex-President Donald Trump or another Republican wins the 2024 election.

So while Ukraine’s backers hope for breakthroughs on the battlefield, months more bloody fighting seem likely.

CNN’s Jim Sciutto reported this week that the US and its allies believed that Russia’s coming offensive was unlikely to result in major battlefield gains. “It’s likely more aspirational than realistic,” said a senior US military official. There are also doubts whether Ukrainian forces have the capacity to sever entrenched Russian defenses in the east and southern areas in a way that could threaten Putin’s land bridges to Crimea. And Stoltenberg said Wednesday at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels that the conflict was becoming a “grinding war of attrition” as he called on the allies to rush ammunition to Ukraine.

Russian mothers gather to send Putin a message about their sons fighting in war

The outside world knows Putin is not contemplating defeat or an exit from the war because of the complete lack of any diplomatic framework for ceasefire talks.

Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that there’s no prospect of this situation changing any time soon.

“President Putin shows no sign that he is preparing for peace. On the contrary, he is launching new offensives and targeting civilians, cities and critical infrastructure,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels.

Fiona Hill, a leading expert on Russia and Putin, who worked in Trump’s White House, said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday that there were few signs Putin’s determination is waning.

“I think this is a pretty grim picture, in part because Putin didn’t feel deterred in the first place,” Hill said. “The other thing is that Putin also feels that he has a lot of support from the rest of the world, including from China … it may very well take countries like China, pushing Russia, for there to be any break in Putin’s resolve.”

The prospect of China leaning on Putin for an end to the war was remote even before the lurch in US-China relations caused by the flight of a Chinese spy balloon across the US this month.

And even if Beijing might be embarrassed at Putin’s performance in Ukraine after the two sides declared a “no limits” partnership last year, it may see an advantage in seeing the US preoccupied with a proxy war against Russia as it escalates its challenge to American power in Asia.

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman however warned Beijing on Wednesday that a long-term bet on Putin would only deliver disappointment.

“You’re going to end up with an albatross around your neck,” Sherman said at an event at the Brookings Institution, though admitted the US was concerned about tightening ties between China and Russia at a time when it is locked in simultaneous showdowns with each power.

“The Ukrainians are going to deliver a strategic failure for Putin. And that’s going to create a lot of problems for those who are supporting this unholy invasion going forward,” she said.

The problem however is that there’s no sign yet that Putin agrees.

Putin’s reputed girlfriend makes public comments about Ukraine war