Evacuation order over railcar chemical leak in Ohio canceled: Officials
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(CLEVES, Ohio) — Officials in Hamilton County, Ohio, on Wednesday, lifted the evacuation order that was put in place the night before over a chemical leak from a railcar.
Hamilton County’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency previously told anyone within half a mile of the rail yard to leave the area immediately.
Authorities confirmed Tuesday night that 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.”
By Wednesday morning, the rail car was no longer “venting,” officials said at a brief press conference.
No one, including train employees, was injured in the incident, officials said.
Officials said 210 homes in Cleves and Whitewater Townships were located in the designated evacuation zone, though how many people were impacted was not immediately known.
The train 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 Tuesday.
Only one car was found to have leaked styrene, they said.
Cleves Township is almost 17 miles from Cincinnati, while Whitewater Township is about 22 miles away.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged those in the area to follow the directions of officials in a social media post on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the incident, White House officials said in a statement.
“The President has directed his team to provide any resources that may be needed,” the official said. “We urge residents to heed the warnings of emergency personnel, especially those instructed to evacuate.”
Ohio senator and vice presidential nominee JD Vance said in a statement on X that he and his team were monitoring the incident.
“My team and I are closely tracking a potentially hazardous chemical leak coming from a railcar near Cleves, Ohio,” Vance said. “Local authorities are working diligently to keep everyone safe. We will continue to monitor the situation until it has been resolved.”
(CODY, Wyo.) — A 60-year-old woman was walking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park when she suffered burns from scalding water in a thermal area by Old Faithful, park officials said.
The woman was walking with her husband and their dog in a thermal area near Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon “when she broke through a thin crust” over the extremely hot water, suffering second-degree and third-degree burns to her leg, the National Park Service said.
The woman, who was visiting Yellowstone from New Hampshire, was taken to a park medical clinic and later flown to a hospital for further treatment, officials said.
Her husband and dog were not hurt, park officials said.
“Visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution,” Yellowstone National Park said in a statement. “The ground in these areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface.”
Park spokesperson Linda Veress urges visitors to “follow the beaten path.”
“In thermal areas, boardwalks take you to amazing places, protect the park, and keep you safe,” Veress told ABC News. “People have been severely burned and killed after leaving the boardwalk or reaching into hot water.”
Pets aren’t allowed on boardwalks or hiking trails, or in thermal areas, park officials noted.
The incident is under investigation, park officials said.
Caroline Ellison, former chief executive officer of Alameda Research LLC, exits court in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Caroline Ellison, a key witness in the conviction of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday for her role in one of the largest financial frauds in history.
Ellison, 29, a former crypto executive, had pleaded guilty to multiple charges in connection with the federal fraud and conspiracy case involving the crypto trading platform. She cooperated with prosecutors and was a key witness during the trial last year of Bankman-Fried, her former boyfriend.
Ellison — who was the co-chief executive of Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s companion hedge fund — testified over three days during the trial, telling the court she committed fraud with her former on-again, off-again boyfriend and at his direction.
Bankman-Fried was ultimately found guilty on all counts for defrauding FTX customers out of $8 billion and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
During Ellison’s sentencing hearing in New York Tuesday afternoon, Judge Lewis Kaplan called her cooperation with the government “very, very substantial” and noted a “fundamental distinction” between Ellison and Bankman-Fried.
“She cooperated and he denied the whole thing,” Kaplan said. “I’ve seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years here. I’ve never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison.”
Still, the judge said even extraordinary cooperation could not be a “get out of jail free card.”
The judge called out another distinction between Ellison and Bankman-Fried.
“You are genuinely remorseful,” Kaplan said. “He’s sorry the gamble he took didn’t work out and he’s really sorry he got caught.”
Before the judge handed down the sentence, Ellison stood at a podium and apologized.
“I want to apologize most of all to the victims,” Ellison said, sniffling through tears. “Not a day goes by when I don’t think about all the people I hurt.”
Ellison said she was “deeply ashamed” by her conduct that enabled what the defense conceded was an “enormous and extraordinary fraud.”
It exposed Ellison to 110 years in prison, but her attorney sought a sentence without prison time.
“She has recovered her moral compass,” defense attorney Anjan Sahni said in court. “Caroline Ellison is a good person who, at 29 years old, can still make a positive impact on the world.”
Prosecutors agreed.
“Caroline Ellison deserves leniency,” Assistant United States Attorney Danielle Sassoon said. “A lenient sentence is also what is just.”
Sassoon noted Ellison consistently told the truth and never shied from her own culpability.
“This was a powerful contrast with Bankman-Fried’s testimony,” Sassoon said.
Ahead of her sentencing, Ellison’s attorneys urged Kaplan to be lenient, arguing Ellison “unflinchingly acknowledged her own wrongdoing, without minimization, blame shifting or self-pity.”
“She time and again proved herself an enormously credible and important cooperating witness” against Bankman-Fried, they added.
Federal prosecutors agreed Ellison provided “extraordinary cooperation that was crucial to the Government’s successful prosecution” of Bankman-Fried.
“Although she did not blow the whistle on any misconduct before FTX’s collapse, she came clean prior to FTX’s declaring bankruptcy to her employees on November 9, 2022,” Sassoon wrote in a letter to the judge. “Ellison approached her cooperation with remarkable candor, remorse, and seriousness.”
Prosecutors declined to make a specific sentencing recommendation in their filing. Defense attorneys suggested a sentence in line with a recommendation from probation officials of time served plus three years supervised release.
“Caroline poses no risk of recidivism and presents no threat to public safety. It would therefore promote respect for the law to grant leniency in recognition of Caroline’s early disclosure of the crimes, her unmitigated acceptance of responsibility for them, and — most importantly — her extensive cooperation with the government,” Sahni wrote in a letter to the judge.
Sahni outlined Ellison’s “complex” relationship with Bankman-Fried that began when the two met at Jane Street Capital in 2015 when she was an intern and he was a junior trader. He said their “on-again-off-again, sometimes-secret relationship” had “warped” her moral compass and led her to take actions “that she knew to be wrong, helping him steal billions.”
During Bankman-Fried’s sentencing hearing in March, Judge Kaplan also ordered that he forfeit $11 billion that the government can use to compensate victims.
The former crypto billionaire has filed an appeal to overturn his conviction.
Two former FTX executives who also pleaded guilty in the case — former director of engineering Nishad Singh and co-founder Gary Wang — are set to be sentenced in October and November, respectively.
(NEW YORK) — Vandals have destroyed a specialized viewfinder that allowed colorblind visitors to see the vibrant fall foliage in Tennessee, officials said.
The incident took place sometime during the night on Sept. 21 when officials from the National Park Service said that vandals not only destroyed the specialized viewfinder located in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area in Oneida, Tennessee, but also managed to rip “a large hole in the floor of the overlook balcony that has been temporarily repaired but will have to be completely replaced later this autumn,” according a statement from the National Park Service released on Monday regarding the incident.
“Individuals with protanopia and protanomaly — more commonly known as red-green color blindness — are not able to fully observe the effect of nature’s transition from deep green to brilliant shades of red, orange and gold,” officials said. “The viewfinder featured lenses for alleviating red-green color deficiencies, enabling visitors with color blindness to see the foliage just as it appears to people with typical vision.”
The National Park Service had partnered with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development to install the specially-equipped viewfinder at Big South Fork’s East Rim Overlook, a popular overlook that offers impressive views of the Big South Fork River gorge.
“The National Park Service strives to provide opportunities for people to enjoy their park to the greatest extent possible,” said Superintendent Niki Stephanie Nicholas. “But thanks to an act of sheer, wanton vandalism, visitors with color blindness will no longer be able to experience the joy of seeing the majestic fall colors of this beautiful landscape.”
Anyone with information concerning this incident is encouraged to contact the NPS at 423-215-9740 or leave a confidential message on the Resource Protection Tip Line at 423-569-7301.
