March 6 top stories
It is March 6. Here are today’s top stories.
Southwest plane hits birds
On Sunday afternoon, a Southwest Airlines flight that departed Cuba for Florida happened to strike birds, causing an engine to catch fire. The cabin filled up with smoke and the plane had to turn around.
The plane managed to land safely in Havana and all 147 passengers and six crew members evacuated by using the plane’s emergency slides. They eventually got on a different plane and were able to go to Florida.
Judy Heumann dies at 75
Judy Heumann, who was a disability rights activist, passed away at the age of 75 on Saturday. She is considered one of the key people behind the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
When Heumann was a baby, she was diagnosed with polio and became a quadriplegic. When she was five, a local school prevented her from becoming a student because it was considered a fire hazard. She had to take classes at home or attend a special school. Her mother fought against the school system for her right to an education for years and she was able to enroll in high school. She then went to a university and graduated in 1969.
AP said in the 1970s, Heumann won a lawsuit against the New York Board of Education when they tried to prevent her from working as a teacher because they considered her wheelchair a fire hazard. It was like a repeat of what she had to endure as a child. But Heumann won the lawsuit and became the first teacher in the state who used a wheelchair.
Heumann was one of the leaders of a 1977 protest in San Francisco to demand federal officials comply with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, a law that bars any organization receiving federal money from discriminating against disabled people. She and other protesters occupied a federal building for almost a month. The protest ended when federal officials signed regulations protecting disabled people’s rights.
Heumann worked in both the Clinton and Obama administrations. She was featured in the 2020 documentary, “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution.”
Her funeral will take place in D.C. on Wednesday.
Four Americans kidnapped in Mexico
The FBI said four Americans were assaulted and kidnapped after they drove across the Mexican border in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates on Friday.
The FBI said “gunmen fired upon the passengers in the vehicle. All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men.”
This happened in Matamoros, which is just across the southernmost point of Texas.
Mexican President Obrador said the Americans crossed the border to buy medicines.
A U.S. official said an innocent Mexican citizen was killed during the shooting and kidnapping. Some news reports said the victims were targeted in a mistaken identity.
There is a video that shows the scene of the kidnapping. There were several gunmen who forced woman to sit in the back of a pick-up truck and three bodies that appeared to be motionless and bleeding on the street. The gunmen dragged the bodies and put them in the truck bed. It is not known who the people in the video are and whether they are dead or alive.
The FBI and Mexican law enforcement are investigating. The FBI has offered a reward of $50,000 for the return of the four Americans and the arrest of those involved.
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Another Norfolk Southern train derails
On Saturday, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed near Springfield, Ohio.
It is the same train company behind the derailment and toxic spill in East Palestine, Ohio.
But the incident on Saturday did not involve large amounts of toxic materials and officials said there is no environmental harm.
CNN said the train had 212 cars and had 28 cars derail, which downed large power lines. There were homes that were only 1,000 feet away. The NTSB are investigating the cause of the derailment.
Federal data says there have been at least 1,000 derailments in the U.S. each year over the past ten years.
Paul Manafort’s $3M settlement with DOJ
Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, has agreed to pay a $3 million settlement to the Department of Justice over his failure to report financial interests in foreign bank accounts.
USA Today said “Once a prominent Republican political adviser, Manafort had been convicted of defrauding banks and taxpayers out of millions of dollars he had amassed through illicit lobbying activities. He had been sentenced to four years in prison in Virginia and three years in Washington.
190 countries agree to protect oceans
193 countries signed a deal at the United Nations headquarters in New York City to protect the ocean by establishing protected areas to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030.
The agreement is called the “High Seas Treaty” and hopes to halt an ongoing extinction crisis in the ocean. Global warming and rising sea temperatures are major causes. The agreement seeks to protect areas of the ocean that are in international waters.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://nypost.com/2023/03/06/video-shows-4-americans-kidnapped-in-mexico-after-shootout/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/us/clark-county-norfolk-southern-train-derailment-monday/index.html
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/florida-flight-returns-cuba-after-birds-cause-engine-97650425
https://apnews.com/article/judy-heumann-disability-rights-dies-fcecc5f0cf58cfc8da7ea72da929af77
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/obituaries/judy-heumann-dead.html
https://www.axios.com/2023/03/06/over-190-countries-reach-historic-deal-to-protect-oceans