Chemical leak from railcar leads to evacuations in Hamilton County, Ohio
(NEW YORK) — A chemical leak from a railcar prompted officials to issue an evacuation order for residents in the Cleves and Whitewater Township areas in Hamilton County, Ohio, authorities said Tuesday.
Hamilton County’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency told anyone within half a mile of the rail yard to leave the area immediately.
Authorities confirmed the leak was styrene, a flammable liquid used to make plastics and rubber, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
“The risk of an explosion is our primary concern,” an official said at a Tuesday night news conference. “We are asking residents within a three-quarter-mile radius to shelter in place as a precaution. Experts have assured us that this is well within the safety norms.”
Officials said 210 homes were located in the designated evacuation zone, though how many people have been impacted was not immediately known. Those needing shelter were advised to go to the Whitewater Township Center, officials said.
Although authorities said at an 11 p.m. ET news conference that the leak had been contained, people were still urged to avoid the area.
“We feel we’ve made significant progress by separating the affected rail car from the rest of the train,” an official said. “Monitoring and mitigation teams are working diligently to ensure everyone’s safety. In the meantime, we urge residents to stay out of the area.”
Authorities are closely monitoring air quality for styrene but said at the earlier news conference that they haven’t yet determined the exact levels.
The train in question consisted of 29 cars, some of which were also carrying styrene, officials said.
“Our first priority upon arriving at the scene was removing anything in close proximity to the leak,” an official confirmed.
Only one car was found to have leaked styrene, they said.
In response to questions on Tuesday night about when residents can return home, officials urged patience.
“We’re not going to rush this. Once it’s absolutely safe, we’ll let everyone know. For now, we encourage residents to monitor social media and news outlets for updates,” an official said.
In a post on Tuesday night X, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged those in the area to follow the directions of officials.
Cleves Township is almost 17 miles from Cincinnati, Ohio, while Whitewater Township is about 22 miles away.
(CHICAGO) — Delegates at the Democratic National Convention approved their platform Monday night and made efforts to curb gun violence a top priority.
The 92-page 2024 DNC Platform touted the work President Joe Biden and the Democratic nominee to replace him, Vice President Kamala Harris, have made on combating the scourge of gun violence in America.
A little over five pages of the platform have been dedicated to what the Democrats pledge to do about gun safety, improving policing and public safety, rehabilitating people released from prisons and protecting women against violence.
“All Americans deserve freedom from fear: to be confident that their children will come home safely from the store or the playground, and to know that their loved one will come home safely from their shift policing the streets,” the draft platform states.
The document was written before Biden left the 2024 race and was approved by the DNC’s Rules Committee in July. It was not updated significantly since Harris replaced Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in late July.
“It makes a strong statement about the historic work that President Biden and Vice President Harris have accomplished hand-in-hand and offers a vision for a progressive agenda that we can build on as a nation and as a Party as we head into the next four years,” The DNC said in a statement released Monday.
Meanwhile, there was little acknowledgment of the nation’s gun violence scourge at the Republican National Convention last month, despite GOP presidential nominee former President Donald Trump being the victim of a would-be assassin wielding an AR-15-style rifle.
In the 2024 GOP convention platform, there was no mention of firearm violence or gun control. In 2020, however, the party’s platform contained three paragraphs supporting reciprocity legislation allowing Americans to carry firearms in all 50 states regardless of which state they received a carry permit, and opposing an assault weapons ban, “frivolous” lawsuits against gun manufacturers and “any effort to deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms without due process of law.”
The National Rifle Association has endorsed the Trump-Vance ticket.
“Now, more than ever, freedom and liberty need courageous and virtuous defenders,” Doug Hamlin, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, said in a statement in July. “President Trump and Senator Vance have the guts and the grit to stand steadfast for the Second Amendment.”
Harris, who was appointed in September 2023 by Biden to oversee the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, made it clear in her first presidential campaign rally in Milwaukee that gun control is a top priority.
“We who believe that every person should have the freedom to live safe from the terror of gun violence will finally pass red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban,” Harris said at the Milwaukee rally.
The DNC Platform touts the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety law enacted in 30 years that Biden signed in June 2022, about a month after a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The law enhances background checks for gun buyers under 21, closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent people convicted of domestic abuse from purchasing guns and allocates $750 million to help states implement “red flag laws” to remove firearms from people deemed to be dangerous to themselves and others.
According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) a website that tracks shootings across the nation, 10,759 people have died this year from wilful malicious or accidental shootings. In 2023, a total of 18,854 people were killed in malicious or accidental shootings, and 20,390 in 2022.
At least 19 people have been killed this year in 352 mass shootings — which the GVA defines as four or more people shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter. In 2023, 40 people were killed in 656 mass shootings, and 36 people were fatally shot in 646 mass shootings that occurred in 2022, according to the GVA.
More than 900 children 17 years old and younger, including 154 under the age of 11, have been killed in shootings this year, according to the GVA. In 2023, 1,682 children 17 years old and younger were killed in shootings, and 1,694 were fatally shot in 2022, according to the GVA.
The DNC Platform emphasizes that under Biden, the nation’s 2023 murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history and violent crime fell to one of the lowest in 50 years.
The Major Cities Police Association’s Violent Crime Survey found double-digit declines in homicide across nearly 70 of America’s largest cities in 2023 compared to 2022. But the numbers are still not as low as they were before the pandemic, officials said.
“The gun violence epidemic is a scourge ripping apart our communities; it is the leading cause of death for children and teens,” the DNC Platform states. “Mass shootings at schools, grocery stores, houses of worship, dancehalls, and nightclubs, as well as daily gun violence at home and on streets, devastate American families.”
The DNC Platform states that the Democrats are determined to establish national universal background checks and red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of people deemed a danger to themselves and others. According to the platform, the party also wants a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to require safe storage of guns and end the gun industry’s immunity from liability “so gunmakers can no longer escape accountability.”
“And, because the gun violence epidemic is a public health crisis, we will fund gun violence research across the Centers for Disease Control [CDC] and National Institutes of Health [NIH] as well as community violence interventions,” the DNC platform states.
(LOS ANGELES) — Firefighters are nearing victory in the battles against three major wildfires near Los Angeles that have burned more than 117,000 acres, destroyed nearly 200 structures and injured 23 people, officials said.
More than 8,000 firefighters combating the Bridge, Line and Airport fires, all burning within 70 miles of each other, have significantly increased containment lines around the blazes while taking advantage of cooler weather in Southern California over the past week, officials said.
The biggest fire, the Bridge Fire, had charred 54,795 acres as of Wednesday after igniting Sept. 8 in the Angeles National Forest, 31 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The blaze was 37% contained on Wednesday, Cal Fire said.
“Conditions were calm last night as firefighters continued their diligent work in strengthening containment lines and validating their progress,” Cal Fire said in an updated statement on the Bridge Fire Wednesday, adding that firefighting helicopters were not needed overnight.
The Bridge Fire in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties has destroyed 75 structures, including at least 33 homes in Wrightwood and Mt. Baldy, and injured four people, officials said.
The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
The Line Fire
Firefighters upped containment on the Line Fire in San Bernardino County to 50% on Wednesday, keeping it to “minimal fire growth overnight,” according to Cal Fire. Like the other active blazes in the Los Angeles area, the Line Fire has been fueled by extremely dry vegetation, officials said.
Since it was ignited by a suspected arsonist on Sept. 5, the Line Fire has burned 39,181 acres, according to Cal Fiire. The blaze has damaged four structures, destroyed one and injured four people, including three firefighters, authorities said.
“Firefighters are strengthening control lines and mopping up hot spots,” Cal Fire said.
The fire prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom to deploy the state National Guard to support the ongoing response.
Newsom declared a state of emergency on Sept. 11 to free up resources in an effort to bring the three fires under control.
Justin Wayne Halstenberg, a 34-year-old man from Norco, California, was identified as the suspect who started the Line Fire, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. During a video arraignment on Tuesday, Halstenberg pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of arson, including aggravated arson and causing great bodily injury.
The Airport Fire
The Airport Fire — which broke out on Sept. 9 in an unincorporated area of Orange County and spread to Riverside County — had burned 23,519 acres as of Wednesday, according to Cal Fire. The blaze is 35% contained.
“Firefighters are prioritizing continued fire line construction and reinforcement by adding more layers of protection in problem areas,” Cal Fire said in a fire update.
The fire has been the most destructive of the three blazes, destroying 160 structures, including homes and businesses, and damaging 34 others, according to Cal Fire. At least 15 people, including two firefighters, were injured, Cal Fire said.
The Airport Fire was sparked by county public works crews working on a fire prevention project by trying to move boulders to prevent public access — mostly by motorcyclists — to an area of the canyon with a lot of dry vegetation that could ignite easily, officials told ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 24,000 firefighters were battling 55 large active wildfires across the nation on Wednesday.
So far in 2024, 37,269 wildfires have erupted across the country, burning more than 7.3 million acres, up from 2.1 million acres at this time last year, according to the fire center.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Four children, ages 11 to 14, driving around Minneapolis in a stolen car were shot and wounded, one critically, when an assailant chasing them unleashed a barrage of gunfire on the vehicle, police said.
The shooting unfolded around 1 a.m. Sunday in northwest Minneapolis, setting off ShotSpotter gunfire detection activations and prompting multiple 911 calls, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
Two boys and two girls were shot in the incidents, and an 11-year-old boy driving the stolen car was taken into custody, O’Hara said. One of the wounded girls was shot in the head and was in critical but stable condition at Hennepin Medical Center, O’Hara said. The other three juveniles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, O’Hara said.
The names of those injured were not released.
“Four kids shot between [the ages] 11 and 14 is outrageous and everyone should be up in arms over it. The police are doing everything that we can in response to this, but we can’t keep responding after the fact,” O’Hara said Sunday.
The assailant who opened fire on the stolen white Kia has not been caught or identified and a motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that five minors were inside of a stolen Kia driving in this area when a dark-colored sedan began following them and firing at them with fully automatic gunfire,” O’Hara said at a news conference Sunday near the crime scene.
At least 30 shell casings were collected at the scene, O’Hara said.
“We believe even more rounds were fired because some of those casings may have been inside the suspect vehicle,” O’Hara said.
The chief said the driver of the stolen car, an 11-year-old boy who was not injured in the shooting, was detained at the scene but was later released to his parents.
O’Hara said two of the juveniles in the stolen car were arrested less than two weeks ago for being in a stolen vehicle.
“We are failing to deter this behavior and, with that being said, we are failing these kids as well,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara said the shooting came during an uptick that Minneapolis police noticed this month in the theft of Kias and Hyundais after the number of those types of stolen vehicles had gone down in the past year.
“What’s most notable over the course of the year is that while there’s fewer of these cars being stolen, the activity that these juveniles are involved with has become more and more brazen,” O’Hara said. “There have been more aggravated assaults, more robberies, more hit and runs, more serious crimes more frequently committed by those individuals who were involved in the theft of these cars. So it’s very, very concerning.”
He said Sunday’s shooting is an example of the escalating boldness of the perpetrators.
“It just shows really brazen, callous behavior,” O’Hara said. “They don’t care about their own lives let alone the lives of other people.”