Monday, February 22 top stories
It is Monday, February 22. Here are today’s top stories.
On Saturday, an United plane that took off from Denver, headed for Hawaii, suddenly had its right engine explode and burst into flames with large pieces falling off. There were 231 passengers and 10 crew aboard.
Pieces of the engine fell down among homes in Broomfield in a half-mile radius. A very large, circular piece of the engine was found lying in someone’s front yard, just a few feet away from the front door. In another home, a father was making sandwiches when a piece of debris burst through his roof. Fortunately, nobody in the neighborhood was hurt.
The pilots managed to guide the plane to a safe emergency landing with nobody hurt. Most of the passengers got on a new flight to Hawaii, but some decided to stay at a hotel overnight.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it would mandate inspections of the specific kind of plane, Boeing 777-200 and may remove some jets from service. United announced it would ground 24 of its planes.
It seems like a fan blade in the engine broke off, causing the explosion. It is a similar accident that killed a woman on a Southwest Airlines flight in 2018 after she was sucked halfway out of the plane when debris from an exploding engine broke the window next to her seat.
On Sunday, the U.S. death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic hit 500,000. Worldwide, the number is at almost 2.5 million. NBC News said the number of the dead is more than the population of Atlanta or Sacramento.
The amount of new daily cases is currently about 100,000 with 1,500 to 3,500 new deaths per day, which is lower than peak numbers over the holiday season but still higher than last summer.
Dr. Fauci said Americans might still be wearing masks for another year, but thinks that things will start feeling normal this fall.
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House Democrats will be focused on passing President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package in the next few weeks now that the impeachment trial is over. USA Today explained that the bill must go through several House committees before it can pass the full House with a simple majority vote before sending it to the Senate. The bill includes $1,400 checks for Americans who earn less than $75,000, extension of $400 a week unemployment benefits, funding for vaccine distribution, and many other things. One major issue that might cause delays is a proposal for a $15 minimum wage increase because not all Democrats support it. We’ll see news about the package in the next couple of weeks.
The Supreme Court has allowed Manhattan’s district attorney to subpoena former president Donald Trump’s personal financial and tax records. Trump’s lawyers have tried to block it, but they will be handed over to investigators who are looking into possible criminal activity in the Trump Organization.
Axios explained that this case started when investigators looked into illegal hush money payments that Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen made to women who claimed they had affairs with Trump before the 2016 election. This seemingly simple case has intensified into examining possible large-scale fraud. Trump himself has denied wrongdoing and said it was a witch hunt.
That’s all the top stories briefs for today. Check out our other videos. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://apnews.com/article/denver-explosions-honolulu-05e113b0fdff51c3ab1324e7a4c500df
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/02/21/debris-plane-engine-drops-through-roof-broomfield-house-pierces-kitchen-ceiling/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/21/boeing-investigation/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-reaches-500-000-deaths-coronavirus-n1257992
https://www.axios.com/supreme-court-trump-taxes-bd5e2384-8403-4ca0-89a0-feab1992be5c.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/22/covid-19-relief-bill-heres-what-we-know-when-you-can-expect-aid/6788221002/