Thursday, July 1 top stories
It is Thursday, July 1. Here are today’s top stories.
The extreme heat wave in the northwest has been blamed for causing hundreds of deaths in the U.S. and Canada.
In Oregon, there were 63 heat-related deaths, with 45 of them happening in the Portland area. The ages of those deceased were 44 to 97 and the cause of death is hyperthermia. Temperatures in the area reached 117 degrees F this week and many buildings in the northwest do not have air conditioning.
In Washington state, at least 20 people have died because of the heat.
The hardest-hit area is the British Columbia, which went through temperatures as high as 121 degrees F. Axios reported that BC’s chief coroner reported about 500 heat-related deaths.
The heat wave has sparked wildfires in BC, which has caused new clouds and storms to form, producing lightning strikes that may cause additional wildfires. People in Lytton, BC were forced to evacuate because of wildfires.
The search for survivors in the Surfside condo collapse was paused today due to concerns that the part of the building still standing might fall down.
The search was paused at 2:11 am because crews noticed that there was slight movement in the concrete floor slabs.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Cava said the search will resume as soon as it is safe to do so.
Two bodies of children were discovered yesterday in the rubble, a 10-year-old and a 4-year-old. The death toll is at 18, with 145 people still missing.
There is a video of water gushing down from the ceiling of a parking garage at the bottom of the condo that was taken just a few minutes before it collapsed last week. The video was taken by a vacationer who was staying at a nearby resort after she heard a loud noise. The video shows that there was already some rubble on the ground.
A federal agency called the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said it would launch an investigation into the cause of the collapse. NIST said there are millions of high-rise condominium units in Florida alone, many of them near the ocean or aging. The NIST said they hope to understand the cause of the Surfside collapse and see what other potential issues are out there for other buildings in the U.S. NBC News said the investigation could take years to complete.
A top prosecutor in Miami said she would ask a grand jury to investigate the collapse to get answers sooner.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill visited Surfside today to meet with first responders and families of the missing.
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On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department seized a cache of illegal fireworks from a home and proceeded to put some of it in a special iron chamber on a semi-truck to detonate them, but something went wrong and there was a huge explosion that destroyed the truck, damaged nearby properties, and injured 17 people, including 10 LAPD officers.
Check out this video from KTLA 5 News.
[Video clip]
Wow, that is a scary explosion. The LAPD said they don’t know why it went wrong and would find out why. There were 5,000 pounds of fireworks found at the home, and the LAPD said they only tried to detonate 10 pounds’ worth.
A 27-year-old man at the home was arrested for possession of a destructive device and may face additional charges because a 10-year-old child lived in the home.
The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg surrendered himself to the Manhattan district attorney’s office early this morning to answer for indictments on tax-related crimes.
This afternoon he was seen being escorted in handcuffs to appear before a judge for his arraignment. He pleaded not guilty and said he would fight the charges in court.
Prosecutors said the Trump Organization engaged in a 15-year tax scheme and that Weisselberg avoided paying taxes on $1.7 million of income. They indicted Weisselberg on 15 felony counts on scheming to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny, and falsifying business records.
Trump said this is a continuation of “the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.” His son Eric said prosecutors should be focused on violent crime in New York, not his father, criticizing that it took them all this time to indict Weisselberg over a corporate car. Some analysts feel that prosecutors are trying to put pressure on Weisselberg to make him “flip” and give evidence against Donald Trump.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named eight lawmakers on a select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. All the members are Democrats except for one: Republican Liz Cheney (Wyoming).
Cheney said she is honored to serve on the committee and hopes to hold those responsible for the attack accountable.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said he is shocked that Cheney would accept something from Speaker Pelosi and felt that she is “closer to (Pelosi) than us.”
There was a previous effort to have a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate the attack, but it was blocked by Republicans who felt it was unnecessary and an attempt to hurt Trump.
There are five more spots on the select committee available that McCarthy can appoint, but it appears that he and other Republicans will refuse to participate.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-organization-charges-07-01-21/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/01/heat-wave-deaths-pacific-northwest/