Biden sending emergency funding bill for disaster relief to Congress
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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will send Congress an emergency funding bill “in the coming days,” with the intent to address the urgent need for disaster relief throughout the United States following a brutal storm season, a White House official said in a memo on Monday.
Several agencies said they are running low of money in the wake of back-to-back major hurricanes, the memo stated.
“The Biden-Harris Administration stands ready to work with lawmakers to deliver the vital resources our communities need with strong bipartisan and bicameral support — just as Speaker Mike Johnson has promised,” Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in the memo.
It emphasized the fact that Congress last passed a comprehensive disaster relief package in 2022, and it stated that the Biden-Harris administration would be putting forth a new one in a matter of days.
“We look forward to working with Congress to quickly pass emergency funding so the Federal Government can meet its obligations to the American people,” Young’s memo continued.
However, it also noted that prior attempts to secure such funding, including outreach as recently as June, had failed to garner support.
Young also pointed to Johnson’s remarks after Hurricane Helene, which were delivered in North Carolina in October.
“What happens next after a storm like this is that the states then do their individual assessments and calculations of the damages and then they submit that need to the federal government. Then Congress acts,” Johnson said at the time. “So as soon as those calculations are prepared, Congress will act in a bipartisan fashion to supply what is needed to help these communities recover, the appropriate amount that the federal government should do.”
The memo also said that FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which has been used in the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, “is in need of additional funding.”
“To ensure these communities get comprehensive recovery assistance, our Administration has made multiple requests to Congress outlining the need for emergency funding to address these disasters, and detailing the consequences of failing to deliver this aid,” Young wrote.
“To date, Congress has yet to act,” she added.
Over the last week, the heads of several departments, including at the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Agriculture Department of Transportation, have written letters to Congress expressing their need for additional funding.
(WASHINGTON) — The Navy identified on Monday two “trailblazing” women aviators who were killed when their jet crashed in northeast Washington during an Oct. 15 training mission.
A day after Navy officials declared them dead, they were identified as Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay P. “Miley” Evans, a Naval flight officer, and Lt. Serena N. “Dug” Wileman, a Naval aviator. Both women were 31 years old and from California, according to the Navy.
Evans and Wileman were described by Navy officials as “two highly skilled, combat decorated aviators.”
“More than just names and ranks, they were role models, trailblazers, and women whose influence touched countless people on the flight deck and well beyond,” the Navy’s Carrier Strike Group Two and Carrier Air Wing 3 said in a statement.
The aviators were identified a day after Cmdr. Timothy Warburton of the Navy’s Electronic Attack Squadron 130 — which goes by the nickname “Zappers” — announced they had been declared dead.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the loss of two beloved Zappers,” Warburton said in a statement. “Our priority right now is taking care of the families of our fallen aviators and ensuring the well-being of our Sailors and the Growler community. We are grateful for the ongoing teamwork to safely recover the deceased.”
Wreckage of the EA-18G Growler jet was located Wednesday on a mountainside east of Mount Rainier, military officials said.
Search-and-rescue crews faced mountainous terrain, cloudy weather and low visibility during the search for the crew, Navy officials said in a statement last week.
The jet, from Electronic Attack Squadron 130, crashed at about 3:23 p.m. on Oct. 15, about 30 miles west of Yakima, according to the Navy.
The jet crashed after launching a training flight from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, officials said.
Evans and Wileman had recently returned from a nine-month deployment to the Red Sea in the Middle East, where they were part of the Carrier Air Wing 3 and stationed aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to the Navy. During their deployment, the aviators were involved in what the Navy described as “the most dynamic combat action.”
“During their deployment, both Evans and Wileman distinguished themselves in combat operations,” Capt. Marvin Scott, a Navy flight commander, said in a statement.
Scott added, “These role models cemented legacies by making history that will inspire future generations of Naval officers and aviators.”
Evans completed multiple combat strikes into Houthi-controlled territories in Yemen, making her one of the few women to fly combat missions over land, according to the Navy.
In 2023, Evans was part of an all-female Super Bowl flyover of State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, which the Navy said was “a historic moment marking 50 years of women flying in the Navy.”
In 2024, Evans was also named the Growler Tactics Instructor of the Year, according to the Navy.
In 2023 and 2024, Wileman also flew on multiple combat missions into the Houthi-controlled territories of Yemen.
“I have personally flown with both of these great Americans in both training and dynamic combat operations, and they always performed professionally and precisely. I could not be more proud to have served with each of them,” Capt. Marvin Scott, a Navy flight commander, said in a statement.
The cause of the crash that killed Evans and Wileman is under investigation, according to the Navy.
The Growler aircraft, which according to the Navy is worth about $67 million, is “the most advanced technology in airborne Electronic Attack and stands as the Navy’s first line of defense in hostile environments.”
The 130 squadron adopted the nickname “Zappers” when it was commissioned as the Carrier Early Warning Squadron 13 in 1959, the military said.
The squadron was most recently deployed to the Southern Red Sea, where it carried out seven pre-planned strikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, according to a statement.
The Zappers also carried out some 700 combat missions “to degrade the Houthi capability to threaten innocent shipping,” according to a press release announcing the squadron’s return to Washington in July.
(WASHINGTON) — The crew of the Titan’s support ship felt a “shudder” around the time they lost contact with the submersible during its doomed dive to the Titanic shipwreck, the Coast Guard said Friday.
U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation Chair Jason Neubauer revealed during the last day of a two-week hearing on the implosion that the master of the Polar Prince told them that in hindsight, he believes he felt the ship “shudder” around the time when communications with the sub were lost during the June 2023 expedition.
The statement was provided to the board in October 2023, when the unidentified master was asked if he or crew members heard anything indicating the OceanGate submersible imploded, Neubauer said.
“The answer from the master was, ‘With the benefit of hindsight, I now believe I felt the Polar Prince shudder at around the time communications were reportedly lost, but at the time, we thought nothing of it. It was slight,'” Neubauer said.
Capt. Jamie Frederick with U.S. Coast Guard Sector Boston, who testified Friday on the Titan search and rescue mission, said if that information had been reported immediately to the Coast Guard, that could have had a “drastic impact on the search efforts.”
“My initial reaction is, if that was information they have, to me personally, it would be unconscionable that they would not share that with the unified command,” Frederick said.
Neubauer added that from the crew’s perspective, the shudder was “not immediately connected to the event” so wasn’t reported to the Coast Guard.
Frederick detailed during his testimony the complex, international search and rescue response, which culminated with a remotely operated vehicle able to go to a depth of 6,000 meters finding the Titan debris on June 22 on the ocean floor.
“They discovered the tail cone first. And then as we continued to find additional debris, it became apparent that it had been a total loss,” he said.
The implosion killed all five passengers, including Stockton Rush, the co-founder and CEO of the sub’s maker, OceanGate. French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, were also killed.
Frederick said the responders understood the Titan had survival systems on board and that they “never even got to the point to have the discussion of suspension.”
“I wouldn’t even want to speculate on when that would happen,” he added.
Frederick also addressed knocking noises detected by sonar buoys in the vicinity of the search location the day after the Titan imploded. He said the data was given to the U.S. Navy, which determined two days later it was not anyone knocking on the hull of the Titan. “They were 100% certain that it was not human in nature,” he said.
He also addressed an “anomaly” consistent with an implosion that was detected by the U.S. Navy in the general vicinity of where the Titan was at the time communications were lost. He said he was informed of the data a day after the Titan was lost and the information was classified at the time.
“It was one piece of data. It wasn’t definitive,” he said. “The Navy couldn’t tell us that it was 100% definitive, that it was an implosion.”
Rush said he would ‘buy a congressman’ to make Titan problems go away: Ex-employee
A former OceanGate employee testified during the hearing on Friday that he resigned from the submersible company after Rush told him he would “buy a congressman” to make problems with its Titan vessel go away.
Matthew McCoy was an active duty member of the U.S. Coast Guard prior to joining OceanGate as an operations technician in April 2017 as the company was building the first Titan prototype, which was never used on Titanic dives. He said he quit six months later, in September 2017, a day after his conversation with Rush.
McCoy said he told Rush he was concerned about operating the experimental Titan vessel without a certificate of inspection and that it would not be inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard. He said Rush responded that the Titan would be operating in the Bahamas and launch out of Canada and would not fall under U.S. jurisdiction.
“I think I had expressed to him that still taking U.S. passengers on there for hire at any point in time, if they touched the U.S. land, you know, U.S. port, that would also be of consideration,” McCoy said.
He said the conversation became “tense” and ended with Rush saying that “if the Coast Guard became a problem, he would buy himself a congressman and make it go away.”
“That will stand in my mind for the rest of time,” McCoy said. “I’ve never had anybody say that to me directly, and I was aghast. And basically, after that, I resigned. I couldn’t work there anymore.”
Asked by the Marine Board of Investigation if he felt like Rush was trying to intimidate him or if it was “more like bluster,” McCoy said he felt like Rush was trying to “either intimidate me or impress me.”
McCoy, a member of the Coast Guard Reserve, said he wasn’t clear on the regulations for the sub but was concerned about potentially violating U.S. law. He said he considered whether to notify the Coast Guard but OceanGate hadn’t done any dives in the U.S. with Titan.
He said he subsequently learned of a complaint OceanGate whistleblower David Lochridge filed in 2018 with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration following his termination. McCoy said he thought there would be a “deeper investigation” into OceanGate at that point. Lochridge’s whistleblower retaliation case was closed in late 2018 after he and OceanGate entered a settlement agreement in their respective lawsuits, OSHA said. Lochridge’s safety allegations regarding the Titan were referred to the Coast Guard, OSHA said.
McCoy said there was an “alarm bell” before he quit that made him concerned about OceanGate’s operations and the production of the Titan’s carbon-fiber hull.
When he started, he said, it was “made very clear” OceanGate was working with the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory and Boeing, “so they had a lot of what sounded like legitimacy behind them, as far as the engineering.”
But he said he soon learned the company had broken ties with the laboratory and Boeing wasn’t going to be doing the layup for the carbon fiber. He said he felt OceanGate’s engineering department “didn’t seem overly qualified” and there were mostly “college interns” during the summer he was there.
He said after he left OceanGate he didn’t keep tabs on the company for long.
“I just kind of quit following the company, not thinking that they would ever actually dive the Titan,” he said.
Coast Guard investigation continues into ‘unprecedented’ incident
OceanGate suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the deadly implosion.
The main purpose of the hearing was to uncover the facts related to the implosion and to make recommendations, the Coast Guard said.
At the conclusion of the two-week hearing Friday afternoon, Neubauer said the Coast Guard will conduct an analysis of the evidence collected and issue any recommendations to the commandant of the Coast Guard “to help ensure that nobody has to endure a future similar occurrence.”
Neubauer said that process can take several months but his priority is to “get this investigation done expeditiously, because I feel there are global issues at stake.”
Any determination on potential criminal acts will also be sent to the commandant of the Coast Guard, who would decide whether to make a referral to the Department of Justice, Neubauer said.
The National Transportation Safety Board will issue a separate report on its findings, including their official determination of the probable cause of the incident, at a later date, Marcel Muise, an investigator with the agency’s Office of Marine Safety, said at the conclusion of the hearing.
Neubauer offered his condolences to the families of those killed and thanked the more than two dozen witnesses who testified in the proceedings.
“It takes courage to testify in the public spotlight, especially in the aftermath of a traumatic event,” he said. “The subject matter covered during the sessions was often highly technical and emotionally charged, and I’m grateful to each witness who stopped and assisted in our efforts to fully understand this unprecedented incident.”
(FANNIN COUNTY, Ga.) — A mom in Georgia is speaking out about being arrested for reckless conduct after her then-10-year-old son was found walking alone.
Brittany Patterson, 41, was arrested by deputies on Oct. 30 after a witness reported “a juvenile in the roadway” who had gone into and left a nearby Dollar General store, according to a Fannin County Sheriff’s Office report.
Patterson’s son, Soren, now 11, was later found by deputies around one mile from the family’s home. Patterson had left Soren to take another one of her children to a doctor’s appointment and didn’t report him missing, according to the report.
In the state, neglect by a parent can be defined as a “failure to provide a child with adequate supervision necessary for such child’s well-being,” according to a guideline.
Patterson told ABC News’ Andrea Fujii in an interview Friday that she had been annoyed Soren didn’t tell her where he was going, but didn’t think he was in any danger.
“I wasn’t panicking or concerned because it’s just a short walk from our house. He knows how to get home,” Patterson said.
In bodycam footage released by the sheriff’s office, Patterson can be seen asking a deputy, “What am I under arrest for?”
“For reckless endangerment,” the deputy replied.
“And how was I recklessly endangering my child?” Patterson asked, before another deputy responded, “We’re not talking about it.”
The deputies then handcuffed the mom.
During the arrest, Patterson also said to one of the deputies, “Last time I checked, it wasn’t illegal for a kid to walk to the store.”
But the deputy replied, “It is when they’re 10 years old.”
The arrest warrant claimed Patterson “willingly and knowingly did endanger the bodily safety of her juvenile son.”
In an interview with ABC News, Patterson’s lawyer David Delugas questioned the charge she is facing.
“Our criminal justice system is built on the fact that you did something or you were negligent. You did something criminally negligent. So what is it she did?” DeLugas said.
Authorities said they would drop the charge against Patterson if she signs a safety plan that involves the use of a GPS tracker on her son’s phone but Patterson told ABC News she is refusing to sign it.
“I just felt like I couldn’t sign that and that in doing so, would be agreeing that there was something unsafe about my home or something unsafe about my parental decisions and I just don’t believe that,” Patterson said.
Patterson, who is currently out on bail, faces up to 1 year in jail with the reckless conduct charge.
