60-year-old C-130 in Georgia crash was on its final trip
PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. — An aging C-130 Hercules that rescued and resupplied U.S. citizens after last year’s hurricanes crashed onto a highway in Georgia during what was supposed to be its final flight, killing all nine Puerto Ricans on board.
After more than 60 years of government service, the huge plane was being flown into retirement in Arizona, reducing Puerto Rico’s National Guard fleet to five similar planes, two of which need maintenance and aren’t being used, Adjutant General Isabelo Rivera said.
“The planes that we have in Puerto Rico — it’s not news today that they are the oldest planes on inventory” among all National Guard planes nationwide, and they often face delays in getting spare parts shipped to the island, he said.
It’s too early to say what might have caused the plane to drop out of the sky onto Georgia’s Highway 21 moments after taking off from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. Rivera said the plane last received maintenance at the military base in Savannah in April.
All nine crew members had helped with hurricane recovery efforts as part of the 198th Fighter Squadron, nicknamed the Bucaneros, which flies out of Base Muniz in the northern coastal city of Carolina, Rivera said. The squadron used the plane to rescue Americans from the British Virgin Islands after Hurricane Irma, and later supplied food and water to Puerto Ricans desperate for help after Hurricane Maria.
Trump repaid Cohen $130K for payment to porn star
WASHINGTON — In a startling revelation, President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that Trump repaid his personal attorney $130,000 in a deal made just before the 2016 election to keep porn star Stormy Daniels quiet about her tryst with the president, directly contradicting Trump’s statements about the hush money.
During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” the former New York City mayor and U.S. attorney said the money to repay Michael Cohen had been “funneled … through the law firm and the president repaid it.”
Asked if Trump knew about the arrangement, Giuliani said: “He didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people.”
The comments contradict statements made by Trump several weeks ago, when he said he didn’t know about the payment to Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement she signed days before the presidential election.
Asked aboard Air Force One whether he knew about the payment, Trump said flatly: “No.” Trump also said he didn’t know why Cohen had made the payment or where he got the money.
Tensions simmer in Mexico as asylum seekers wait at border
TIJUANA, Mexico — Tension between the Mexican government and Central American asylum seekers simmered Wednesday as men, women and children camped in a large plaza for a fourth straight day waiting for U.S. inspectors to process their claims.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection had accepted 28 caravan members for processing at San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing by late Tuesday, leaving about 100 to wait at the Mexican entrance under tarps tied to waist-high metal gates to shield them from sporadic rain.
Another 20 or so caravan members were allowed to cross a long bridge to a waiting area just outside a building with U.S. inspection booths, also protected by tarps.
Mexican federal immigration officials and directors of privately run migrant shelters met with organizers at a large conference room table Tuesday night, gently encouraging caravan members to return to shelters for temporary housing.
Officers injured after explosion at barricade scene
NORTH HAVEN, Conn. — A barn behind a house in Connecticut exploded Wednesday night while police and a SWAT team were negotiating with a man who had taken his wife hostage, leaving seven people including at least six officers injured, officials said.
The officers were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after the explosion around 8:30 p.m., North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda said.
The wife, he said, escaped before the blast.
“This started late this afternoon with what was apparently a very violent domestic call,” Freda told WTIC-TV. The police “were trying to coax him … out of the house and really try to calm the situation down. Then things took a turn for the worse with an explosion.”
Freda said the six officers suffered cuts, abrasions and bruises and were taken to Yale New Haven hospital. It was not immediately known if the wife was also being treated at the hospital, which said it had seven patients.
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Trump hires lawyer who represented Clinton in impeachment
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday hired a veteran attorney who represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment process as the White House shifted to a more aggressive approach to a special counsel investigation that has reached a critical stage.
The White House announced the hiring of lawyer Emmet Flood after disclosing the retirement of Ty Cobb, who for months has been the administration’s point person dealing with special counsel Robert Mueller.
It’s the latest shakeup for a legal team grappling with unresolved questions on how to protect the president from legal and political jeopardy in Mueller’s Russia probe, which is nearing the one-year mark.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Cobb had been discussing the decision for weeks and would retire at the end of May and that Flood would be joining the White House staff to “represent the president and the administration against the Russia witch hunt.”
“I’m deeply grateful to the president and the chief of staff for this opportunity to serve my country,” Cobb told The Associated Press on Wednesday night. “It’s been a privilege, and I’m confident that the matter will be in good hands with Emmet Flood.”
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Memo: Pruitt landlord’s husband sought EPA work for client
WASHINGTON — The lobbyist whose wife rented a condo to Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt at $50 a night sought EPA committee posts for a lobbying client, according to a newly released EPA memo.
J. Steven Hart’s seeking those appointments from his wife’s former tenant, Pruitt, shows “the extent to which the special interests providing him with gifts have sought specific favors from EPA in return,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The memo makes for the latest in a monthslong barrage of news reports and federal investigations questioning spending and other actions at Pruitt’s EPA. Pruitt’s former security chief, whose time with Pruitt saw the EPA administrator provided with round-the-clock security and first-class flights in the name of security, appeared for an hourslong closed-door interview Wednesday with staff on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Pruitt has repeatedly blamed his security staff and other subordinates for questioned spending by his office. Last week, the EPA head told congressional lawmakers that he had no idea staffers had spent $43,000 on a soundproof booth after he asked for a private, secure communications set-up.
His former deputy chief of staff, Kevin Chmielewski, denied that, telling ABC News in a segment aired Wednesday that Pruitt knew the booth would be “on the tune of over $40,000.”