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Officials unveil Interstate 95 collapse repair plan in Philadelphia: ‘This is our championship’

June 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(PHILADELPHIA) — Officials unveiled on Wednesday a plan to repair an elevated section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia that collapsed when a tanker truck caught fire in the underpass.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the “most efficient” way to get the impacted lanes reopened will be to backfill and pave over the Cottman Avenue underpass and then work to build a new bridge.

“Once complete, cars and trucks can return to this stretch of 95 and then we will work together to build a permanent bridge, while making sure we keep six lanes of traffic open at all times,” Shapiro said at a press conference.

A 24/7 livestream feed that will allow the public to watch the reconstruction in real time will be set up over the weekend, according to the governor.

Shapiro didn’t give a timeline on when the repaving of the underpass will be complete, but he stressed that it will be done “as quickly as possible.” The materials to fill the underpass will arrive on Thursday, he said.

“This is our championship,” he added. “We are ready to go and I am proud as hell to be on the team with all of these guys and gals standing behind me here today.”

The governor had told reporters on Sunday evening that “the complete rebuild” is expected “to take some number of months.”

The bridge collapsed on Sunday morning as a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline attempted to navigate a left-hand turn after exiting at the Cottman Avenue offramp of I-95 in Pennsylvania’s largest city, according to officials. Losing control through its turn, the truck fell on its side and ruptured its own tank. Once ignited, the fuel burned at a high enough heat to structurally compromise the concrete and steel I-beams of the overpass, officials said.

The northbound lanes of the affected segment collapsed, while the southbound lanes are compromised and will also need to be replaced. Crews have since removed most of the collapsed structure along with the tanker truck that was trapped beneath, officials said. They are now working to demolish the structurally unsound southbound portion of the roadway. The full demolition will be finished by Thursday, according to Shapiro.

The Pennsylvania State Police said Monday that a body was recovered from the wreckage and turned over to the Philadelphia County Medical Examiner and Coroner. While authorities have yet to identify the remains, the family of Nathaniel Moody told ABC News that he was the driver of the tanker truck and had died in the crash. Moody leaves behind a son and two daughters, his family said.

I-95 is one of the busiest travel corridors in the United States and serves as the main north-south highway on the East Coast. An average of more than 160,000 vehicles travel across the impacted section in Philadelphia every day, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Woman, 28, arrested for allegedly enrolling at high school as a 17-year-old

June 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A 28-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly posing as a 17-year-old student and attending a Louisiana high school, authorities said.

Martha Jessenia Gutierrez-Serrano, 28, and her mother, Marta Elizeth Serrano-Alvarado, 46, both of Boutte, Louisiana, were each charged Tuesday with one count of injuring public records, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

Serrano-Alvarado allegedly used a fraudulent passport and birth certificate to enroll her 28-year-daughter at Hahnville High School in Boutte during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the sheriff’s office.

School officials launched an investigation after getting “a tip that a female student, who was on record as being 17 years old, was in fact an adult possibly in her mid 20’s,” the sheriff’s office said. School officials then relayed their findings to the authorities on May 29, the sheriff’s office said.

St. Charles Parish Public Schools confirmed in a statement Tuesday that school officials notified the sheriff’s office that fake documents were used to enroll an adult at the high school. A school district spokesperson declined to comment on when the 28-year-old was allegedly enrolled or who submitted the tip to the school.

The district added that it “will enhance processes to determine the authenticity of enrollment documents for current and future students as well as modify policy and procedures as warranted.”

South braces for severe weather, dangerous heat: Latest forecast

June 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The South is bracing for severe weather on Wednesday, including strong tornadoes, powerful winds and large hail.

The bull’s-eye will be from Jackson, Mississippi, to Montgomery, Alabama, to Albany, Georgia, where winds could reach 80 mph or higher. But the severe weather could stretch as far west as eastern Texas and as far east as Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta; Tallahassee, Florida; and Savannah, Georgia.

On Thursday, the threat for hail and winds will be in two pockets: one in Kansas and Oklahoma, and another along the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Florida.

The South is also facing dangerous heat.

On Tuesday, McAllen, Texas, hit a record high of 103 degrees.

Alerts are in effect Wednesday from Florida to Louisiana to Texas, where temperatures could reach 98 degrees in Austin and 110 degrees in Loredo, Texas. The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — could climb to a scorching 119 degrees.

On Thursday, the record heat will set in from Houston to New Orleans, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees.

By Friday, record highs are expected in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, New Orleans and Miami, with a heat index close to 120 degrees.

Interstate 95 collapse repair plan to be announced in Philadelphia

June 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(PHILADELPHIA) — Officials are expected to unveil on Wednesday a plan to repair an elevated section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia that collapsed when a tanker truck caught fire in the underpass.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt and other officials will provide an update on the coordinated response to the I-95 collapse during a press conference at 11 a.m. ET. They are set to announce a reconstruction plan along with a timeline, according to Philadelphia station WPVI-TV.

Shapiro had told reporters on Sunday evening that “the complete rebuild” is expected “to take some number of months.”

The section collapsed on Sunday morning as a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline attempted to navigate a left-hand turn after exiting at the Cottman Avenue offramp of I-95 in Pennsylvania’s largest city, according to officials. Losing control through its turn, the truck fell on its side and ruptured its own tank. Once ignited, the fuel burned at a high enough heat to structurally compromise the concrete and steel I-beams of the overpass, officials said.

Police K-9 dies from heat exhaustion after patrol car malfunctions, unexpectedly shuts off

June 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(HOUSTON) — A 4-year-old police K-9 named Aron with one-and-a-half years of experience on the force has died from heat exhaustion after being left in an air-conditioned patrol car that unexpectedly shut off when the officer was away from the vehicle.

The incident occurred on Monday in Houston, Texas, when the handler of the K-9 left the dog in a “running, air-conditioned patrol vehicle, which is necessary and common practice when the K-9 partner is not actively engaged in police work,” read a statement from the Houston Police Department announcing Aron’s death.

“When Aron’s police handler returned to the vehicle, it was discovered that the engine had been shut off and Aron was in distress,” authorities continued.

Aron was immediately transported to an emergency veterinarian clinic but ultimately succumbed to heat exhaustion.

Houston Police Department vehicles are “equipped with a system that notifies the handler, sounds the horn, activates cooling fans, and rolls down the car windows if for some reason the vehicle shuts down,” HPD said. “This did not happen in this instance.”

The Houston Police Department says it will now be investigating Aron’s death to figure out what exactly happened and how the vehicle malfunctioned so that a similar incident can be prevented from happening in the future and all HPD vehicles that transport K-9s will immediately be inspected prior to being deployed again to ensure that all of their systems are in good working order.

Said the Houston Police Department: “Please keep Aron’s handler and the entire K-9 team in your prayers as they mourn the loss of Aron.”

Kayaker presumed dead after disappearing into frigid water while with fiancée

June 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A man who was kayaking with his fiancée is presumed to have died after his vessel began sinking and disappeared into near-freezing water.

The kayaker — 37-year-old Travis Valenti from Massapequa, New York — was kayaking on Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park in Washington state last Friday at approximately 2:10 p.m. when his vessel suddenly began taking on water and his fiancée attempted to rescue him, according to a statement from the National Park Service detailing the incident.

“Mr. Valenti attempted to continue paddling but ultimately had to abandon his kayak and entered the water,” officials from NPS said. “As Mr. Valenti’s fiancée attempted rescue, her kayak overturned, resulting in her also entering the water.”

Valenti’s fiancée was able to swim to shore to alert staff from the nearby Log Cabin Resort that her partner had become submerged and was struggling to swim back. Neither of them were wearing a life jacket at the time of the incident.

Log Cabin resort staff immediately responded to the area where Valenti was last seen but were unable to locate him in the water.

“On-shore bystanders and Mr. Valenti’s fiancée assisted Rangers and personnel from Clallam County Fire District 2 with identifying the area he was last seen, which was estimated to be more than a quarter mile offshore and roughly 400-500 feet deep,” NPS said of the lake in Washington located about 200 miles by car to the northwest of Seattle. “Rangers searched for Mr. Valenti by vessel for more than 2-hours but were unable to locate him.”

A secondary search of the area was carried out the next day but Valenti still remains missing and is presumed dead.

Lake Crescent hovers around 50 degrees around this time of year due to its location and depth, and sudden immersion into cold water can immediately impact a person’s breathing as well as their ability to move their limbs, according to NPS.

“Swimmers are encouraged to use a buddy system,” NPS said following Valenti’s death. “Boaters should always wear a life jacket and understand the risks of recreating on large bodies of water, such as underwater hazards, wind, waves, and water temperature.”

Heat wave expected to reach parts of Texas, millions at risk for severe weather

June 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Severe weather is possible for 16 million Americans across the Southern U.S. from Texas to South Carolina on Tuesday.

A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for parts of eastern Texas and northern Louisiana– from Tyler, Texas to Shreveport, Louisiana, through 6 p.m., local time on Tuesday — mainly for large hail and strong winds, according to experts.

Areas from Jackson, Mississippi, to Dothan, Alabama, are facing the highest threat of very large hail and damaging winds, with a low chance of tornadoes in the area, according to meteorologists.

Meteorologists said the stationary front will bring another round of severe storms from Louisiana to Georgia.

In addition to severe weather, temperatures are expected to hit triple digits in Texas this week, as a heat wave envelops part of the state.

A heat advisory has been issued for much of southern Texas as the heat index– the feels-like temperature– will soar over 110 degrees in certain areas, according to meteorologists.

The heat index in Corpus Christi will reach 112 degrees by Wednesday afternoon, while San Antonio’s heat index is forecast to be 106 degrees.

The actual temperature is forecast to reach up to 105 degrees in some parts of Texas.

Midland is expected to reach 104 degrees on Thursday and Friday, Dallas is projected to hit 102 degrees on Friday and Saturday, and San Antonio will hit 105 degrees on Friday and 103 degrees on Saturday, according to meteorologists.

The extreme heat could adversely impact people’s health, meteorologists warned.

Judge allows E. Jean Carroll to amend pending defamation lawsuit against Trump

June 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As former President Donald Trump was being arraigned in Florida Tuesday on charges related to his handling of classified documents after leaving office, a federal judge in New York dealt him another legal blow.

Judge Lewis Kaplan allowed writer E. Jean Carroll to amend a pending defamation lawsuit against Trump to include allegedly disparaging comments he made about her last month after he was found liable for sexually assaulting her.

A jury last month found Trump liable for battery and defamation after Carroll alleged that Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!” when he denied her claim that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.

Carroll’s amended complaint includes comments Trump made online and in a CNN town hall following the May 9 verdict in Carroll’s civil lawsuit. “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE — A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!'” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform following the verdict.

The pending suit, which is separate from the New York lawsuit, seeks $10 million in damages on top of the $5 million the Manhattan jury awarded Trump in the other case.

“We look forward to moving ahead expeditiously on E. Jean Carroll’s remaining claims,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said.

Trump, who has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her, last week asked the Manhattan judge to reconsider the $2 million in compensatory damages because the jury did not find Trump raped Carroll as she long alleged.

“The Court should order a new trial on damages or grant remittitur because contrary to Plaintiff’s claim of rape, the Jury found that she was not raped but was sexually abused by Defendant during the 1995/1996 Bergdorf Goodman incident,” the filing from Trump’s attorneys said.

“Such abuse could have included groping of Plaintiffs breasts through clothing or similar conduct, which is a far cry from rape. Therefore, an award of $2 million for such conduct, which admittedly did not cause any diagnosed mental injury to Plaintiff, is grossly excessive under the applicable case law,” said the filing.

Louisiana’s Fort Polk renamed after African American WWI soldier

June 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LEESVILLE, La.) — As part of the national campaign to change the names of U.S. Army installations to cut ties with Confederate figures in America, Louisiana’s Fort Polk was redesignated to Fort Johnson Tuesday morning.

The campaign includes renaming nine U.S. Army bases, including North Carolina’s Fort Bragg changed to Fort Liberty, Texas’ Fort Hood changed to Fort Cavazos and Georgia’s Fort Benning changed to Fort Moore, among other changes.

Fort Polk was originally named after Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk, a Confederate commander.

Now, the Fort Johnson base is honored for Sgt. William Henry Johnson, an African American World War I Medal of Honor recipient who served in the all-Black 369th U.S Infantry Regiment.

“Sgt. William Henry Johnson embodied the warrior spirit, and we are deeply honored to bear his name at the Home of Heroes,” said Brig. Gen. David W. Gardner, commanding general of the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk, in the press release.

The North Carolina native served one tour of duty on the western edge of the Argonne Forest in France’s Champagne region from 1918-1919, and became one of the first Americans to be awarded France’s highest award for valor, the French Croix de Guerre avec Palme.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, former President Theodore Roosevelt called Johnson one of the five bravest Americans to serve in World War I.

After his death in July 1929, Johnson was awarded the Purple Heart in 1996, the Distinguished Service Cross in 2003, and most recently, the Medal of Honor in 2015.

More names are expected to be changed through the renaming campaign, including Georgia’s Fort Gordon changed to Fort Eisenhower to commemorate Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Virginia’s Fort A.P. Hill will be changed to honor Dr. Mary Edwards Walker.

DHS extends deportation relief for some immigrants from four Central American countries

June 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security has issued an 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, the department announced on Tuesday.

The extension allows approximately 337,000 immigrants from those countries, who are currently protected from deportation, to temporarily continue legally living and working in the country.

TPS is issued by the secretary of Homeland Security when countries are deemed too dangerous for their citizens for several reasons including national disasters, political unrest and war.

Although TPS may protect immigrants from deportation, it does not offer a pathway to citizenship for certain people residing in the U.S. before a certain date. For those from Nicaragua, for example, TPS protections were granted after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998, and so only certain individuals that were in the U.S. on Jan. 5, 1999, are eligible to apply.

Applicants must also meet other criteria, like background checks.

The Trump administration had previously tried to end TPS for these and other countries, but a lawsuit filed by advocates on behalf of TPS holders stalled the termination. DHS claims Tuesday’s announcement officially rescinds those attempts. A hearing in that case is scheduled on June 22.

Ahilan Arulanantham, an attorney representing TPS holders in the ongoing lawsuit, said in a tweet that details about how the announcement affects their case still need to be worked out but celebrated the government’s actions.

“That’s why we are here now, watching the government finally inch toward doing the bare minimum version of the right thing,” he said.

Advocates say that Tuesday’s announcement serves as an acknowledgement from the Biden administration that immigrants from those countries must be shielded from deportation, but it falls short of protecting the thousands more that have come to the U.S. since TPS was designated.

TPS remains one of the only tools that the administration has to protect large groups of migrants without congressional approval.

“Through the extension of Temporary Protected Status, we are able to offer continued safety and protection to current beneficiaries who are nationals of El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua who are already present in the United States and cannot return because of the impacts of environmental disasters,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a statement. “We will continue to offer support to them through this temporary form of humanitarian relief.”

The DHS announcement coincided with TPS Children’s Day, a celebration observed by immigrant advocates. Gabriela Hernandez, a communications specialist for immigrant organization CASA, says around 10 children of current TPS holders met with and shared friendship bracelets with White House officials today ahead of the announcement and urged them to protect their families from deportation and to designate TPS for Guatemala.

The White House did not respond when asked to comment on the meeting.

Yubrank Suazo, a Nicaraguan opposition leader formerly imprisoned by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, was freed and flown to the U.S. in February 2021.

“While I applaud the administration for doing this, it’s regrettable they did not redesignate TPS,” he told ABC News in Spanish. “Over 100,000 [Nicaraguan] immigrants who have fled oppression and the humanitarian crisis in our country are still vulnerable.”

Approximately 241,699 El Salvadorans and 76,737 Hondurans benefit from the program, according to a 2022 report by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Nepal and Nicaragua make up a smaller portion of the TPS-beneficiaries with approximately 14,556 and 4,250 immigrants enrolled, respectively.

Only those who are already benefitting from the protections are eligible to reregister. The announcement does not grant additional relief to any new group.

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