1 dead in mass casualty event after boat crashes into Clearwater Ferry in Florida
FierceAbin via Getty Images
(CLEARWATER, FL) — One person was killed and multiple people were injured when a boat struck the Clearwater Ferry in Clearwater, Florida, on Sunday evening.
All of the injured individuals were people on the ferry, according to the Clearwater Police Department.
There were 45 people aboard the ferry, including two crew members, when it was hit by a passing boat, police said.
“It’s been declared a mass casualty incident by the fire department due to the number of injuries. All local hospitals have been notified,” Clearwater PD wrote in a post on X on Sunday night.
“Multiple trauma alerts have been called with helicopters transporting two of the more seriously injured,” the post continued.
The incident took place near the Memorial Causeway Bridge in Clearwater. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg was notified at approximately 8:40 p.m., the Seventh Coast Guard District wrote on X.
The boat that struck the ferry fled the scene, Clearwater PD said in a social media post on Sunday night.
After the crash, the ferry came to rest on a sand bar just south of the bridge. First responders and emergency personnel were then able to remove “all patients and passengers” from the ferry, police said.
“We were just enjoying the ride, and then all of a sudden we hear the first mate yelling, ‘Hey, hey, hey,'” one passenger told ABC affiliate WFTS in Tampa.
“And then we looked back behind us and this big yacht just came through the boat,” said the passenger, who was riding the ferry with his two kids and his wife, who is 31 weeks pregnant with the couple’s third child.
The Coast Guard says there were six people on board the recreational boat, which left the scene. Authorities said it was later found by a responding agency.
“The boat that fled the scene has been identified by another law enforcement agency,” Clearwater PD said. However, further details about the second vessel involved in the incident have not yet been made available.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will be taking the lead on the crash investigation, police said.
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are an “unprecedented and unlawful expansion” of executive power, a lawyer for a group of small businesses told a federal court Tuesday morning.
The hearing at the Court of International Trade in Manhattan marks the first time a federal court has taken up the question of whether Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are legal.
According to Jeffrey Schwab – a lawyer from the conservative Liberty Justice Center representing the plaintiffs – the question isn’t even close. Schwab argued that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act – a 1977 law that gives the president the right to regulate commerce during national emergencies – does not give Trump the right to unilaterally to impose tariffs.
He added that Trump’s purported emergency of trade deficits has been a problem for years and fail to meet the legal standard for an emergency of being brief, rare and not ongoing.
“This case is so far outside of what an emergency is and what an unusual and extraordinary threat is that this Court could easily say that it is not an emergency,” Schwab argued.
When the three judge panel hearing the case – including judges appointed by Presidents Obama, Trump and Reagan – pushed for a legal standard on which to issue their future ruling, Schwab said the unlawfulness of the tariffs is so obvious that the judges shouldn’t overthink it.
“I’m asking this court to be an umpire and call a strike, you’re asking me, well, where’s the strike zone? Is it at the knees or slightly below the knees?” Schwab said. “I’m saying it’s a wild pitch and it’s on the other side of the batter and hit the backstop, so we don’t need to debate that.”
The lawsuit was filed last month by a group of small businesses, including a New York liquor distributor, Utah pipe company, Virginia electronics store, Pennsylvania-based tackle shop, and Vermont cycling company. Each company argued they rely on imports from countries like China and Mexico and would be irreparably harmed by what they called Trump’s “unprecedented power grab illegal.”
The small business argue that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give the president the power to unilaterally impose tariffs like Trump did last month with a blanket tariff rate and higher rates for certain countries.
They described the national emergency Trump used to justify the tariffs as a “figment of his own imagination” because the United States has operated with massive trade deficits for years without causing economic harm.
“If actually granted by statute, this power would be an unlawful delegation of legislative power to the executive without any intelligible principle to limit his discretion,” they argued.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice have pushed back on the lawsuit, saying that Congress permits the president to impose some tariffs, and Trump’s invoking of a national emergency makes his power “broader,” justifying the sweeping tariffs. They have also argued that a court order blocking the tariffs would unlawfully encroach on the president’s authority.
“Plaintiffs’ proposed injunction would be an enormous intrusion on the President’s conduct of foreign affairs and efforts to protect national security under IEEPA and the Constitution,” they argued.
At least six separate lawsuits have targeted Trump’s use of tariffs, including a case filed by the state of California and a coalition of twelve state attorneys general. While some of the cases were filed in district courts, the cases have gradually been transferred to the Court of International Trade, making Tuesday’s argument the first time a panel of judges hears a challenge to Trump’s tariffs.
Last month, the court rejected an emergency request for a temporary order to block the tariffs, finding that the businesses failed to prove that an “immediate and irreparable harm” would stem from the tariffs.
Tuesday’s argument will be heard by a panel of three judges – Gary S. Katzmann, Timothy M. Reif, and Jane A. Restani – who were appointed by Presidents Obama, Trump and Reagan respectively.
Tucked away in a corner of New York’s Foley Square, the Court of International Trade has nationwide jurisdiction on trade disputes and has recently focused its energy on more niche issues, like honey customs disputes and mattress imports. Tuesday’s oral argument is set to provide the most high-profile hearing for the court in recent memory.
(NEW YORK) — More than 50 million people from Mississippi to western New York are under a slight risk Monday of receiving damaging wind, large-sized hail, flash flooding and a few tornadoes.
Storms were already rolling through east Texas and Louisiana early Monday morning, prompting a severe thunderstorm watch. Storms are forecast to continue to move through the South, with the severe weather extending through Monday afternoon.
A cold front spanning the East from western New York to the Gulf Coast is expected to produce strong to sever storms Monday afternoon and into the evening.
A flood watch is also in place for parts of central and western New York, including the cities of Syracuse and Rochester, where 1 to 3 inches of rain could fall in a short span of time through Monday evening and could lead to flooding of rivers, streams, and other low-lying areas.
Overnight, there were more than 240 damaging storm reports from Texas to Virginia, including reports of large-sized hail, destructive wind and a few tornadoes.
Hail the size of grapefruit was reported on Sunday near Amarillo, Texas. Thunderstorms accompanied by wind gusts up to 90 mph swept across the Texas panhandle, causing widespread power outages.
A local state of disaster was declared Sunday by the mayor of the City of Canyon, Texas, a suburb of Amarillo, due to “significant storm damage” caused large-sized hail across the city.
More than 200 homes in the City of Canyon were damaged by hail that also left numerous vehicles with shattered windows, ABC affiliate station KVII in Amarillo reported.
Severe weather damage was also reported in the Dallas suburb of Bonham, Texas, where high winds partially ripped the roof off an ice cream store, according to ABC Dallas affiliate station WFAA.
One person was killed in Lafayette County, Mississippi, on Saturday when a tree fell on a vehicle during a storm, according to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. Multiple tornado warnings were issued across northern Mississippi on Saturday.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said one person was also killed in Georgia on Saturday night. The Georgia Emergency Management said the fatality occurred in Banks County when a tree fell on a vehicle.
Meanwhile, the west was dealing with extreme heat over the weekend that broke daily high-temperature records on Sunday in Seattle, which reached 90 degrees, and Portland, Oregon, which hit 96 degrees.
The hot weather is forecast to continue throughout the West through at least Tuesday.
Record high temperatures are possible on Monday in Oregon, including the cities of Portland, Eugene and Medford. Spokane, in northeast Washington, and Boise, Idaho, could also break high temperature records on Monday.
Las Vegas will be under an extreme heat warning on Monday and Tuesday with temperatures expected to reach 110.
At Death Valley National Park in Southern California, known as one of the hottest places in the world, temperatures could approach 120 degrees this week.
(WASHINGTON) — The only Black, all-female unit serving in Europe during World War II received the Congressional Gold Medal on Tuesday at the United States Capitol.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, commonly known as the “Six Triple Eight,” addressed a backlog of roughly 17 million pieces of mail in three months before serving in France and eventually returning to the U.S.
Alongside Congressional bipartisan leaders, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) presented the honor, which is the highest civilian honor awarded by Congress, to the family of the unit commander, Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley. Over 300 descendants and family members of the Six Triple Eight battalion were present for the ceremony, according to Johnson in his speech.
“This remarkable story has brightly captured imaginations, it has now inspired books and movies, stirred the consciousness of millions of Americans, who are just now hearing and sharing this incredible story,” Johnson said.
Earley’s children, Stanley Earley III and Judith Earley, received the award from the House and Senate leaders.
During their service in 1945, the 855-member battalion did not gain any fanfare or recognition for their feats. This medal comes after years of campaigning for the overlooked battalion that many say set an example for Black women in the military.
Congress voted 422-0 to award the 6888th with this honor back in 2022. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.), who co-sponsored the legislation, spoke at the ceremony, praising the “unsung heroes” receiving the acknowledgement 80 years later.
This honor marks the latest development in the unit’s overdue recognition. A monument was erected in 2018 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in their honor, and the 6888th was given the Meritorious Unit Commendation by the U.S. Army in 2019.
The 2024 Tyler Perry-directed Netflix film about the unit, which starred Kerry Washington, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
Retired Col. Edna Cummings, who shared a few words of acceptance at the ceremony, directed a documentary on the unit in 2019.
“This history has now restored the passion of service, as evidenced by young girls who now dress up as members of the Six Triple Eight,” she said.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) shared a few words at the ceremony, emphasizing the importance of a bipartisan celebration in today’s political climate.
“We gather here today to salute these mighty veterans. We salute the ingenuity with which they sprang into battle,” Jeffries said. “We salute the barriers that they broke in the system designed to push them aside. We salute their trailblazing spirit and the road that they paved for others.”
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion joins the less than 200 recipients to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
