Monthly Archives: <span>September 2020</span>

Arson Closes Wooden Bridge in Mississippi Indefinitely

TUPELO, Miss. — Folks in one Mississippi county will have to find an alternate route home after a fire on one of the few remaining wooden bridges in the area has closed it for at least 30 days. Firefighters from …

NTSB: Pilot’s Actions Likely Caused Earnhardt Plane Crash

A pilot’s inability to maintain proper airspeed and the flight crew’s decision to continue an unstable approach and landing likely caused the crash of a small plane carrying race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his family in 2019, according …

Structured Settlement Swindler With Kennedy Ties Sentenced to Prison

A well-connected Virginia financial advisor was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison for embezzling approximately $8 million from money that the U.S. government and a hospital had entrusted to him to set up annuities for 13 people …

U.S. Justice Department Proposes Changes to Internet Platforms’ Immunity

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump met with nine Republican state attorneys general on Wednesday to discuss the fate of a legal immunity for internet companies after the Justice Department unveiled a legislative proposal aimed at reforming the same law. Trump …

U.S. Appeals Court Rejects Novel Opioid Settlement Framework

A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a judge’s approval of a novel plan by lawyers representing cities and counties suing drug companies over the U.S. opioid crisis that would bring every community nationally into their settlement talks. The 6th …

As Wildfires Approach Silicon Valley, Tech Firms Struggle to Find the Backing to Fight Them

Silicon Valley’s innovation engine has been slow to produce useful new tools to help firefighters like Dave Winnacker extinguish the deadly blazes that each year fill California’s skies with smoke. Winnacker, a fire district chief who led a team against …

Close Call With Storm Renews Debate Over Houston Barrier

GALVESTON, Texas — Houston, a Gulf Coast city that barely rises above sea level, has long worried about a worst-case weather scenario — a direct hit from a powerful storm that sends a wall of water barreling into the region’s …

Few Resources, Old-Growth Forest Allowed For Fire’s Growth

LOS ANGELES — A lack of firefighting resources in the hours after it was sparked allowed a fast-moving wildfire to make an unprecedented run through Southern California mountains and eventually find fuel in old-growth trees to become one of Los …

Vanessa Bryant Sues LA Sheriff Over Helicopter Crash Photos

LOS ANGELES — Vanessa Bryant, the widow of basketball star Kobe Bryant, has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County sheriff claiming deputies shared unauthorized photos of the crash that killed her husband, their 13-year-old daughter and seven others. …

Study Shows Monitoring Plus Coaching Can Cut Risky Driving in Half

Oil-field workers who bomb around in pickups across hundreds of miles of countryside every work week cut speeding and hard braking in half once their boss started monitoring their driving habits and scoring their skills. Researchers for the Virginia Tech …