QUOTE OF THE DAY
“There seems to have been a shift in attitude. The latest revelations indicate that reporters’ communications are now fair game.”
Steven Aftergood, with the Federation of American Scientists, on the government’s recent efforts to go after journalists’ e-mail and phone records without warning their news organizations Article, 1A
Woman killed in San Antonio-area flood
SAN ANTONIO - A woman was killed Saturday in flooding in the San Antonio area.
San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove said the woman was trapped in her car, got on the roof and was swept away in flood waters. He said her body was later found against a fence.
Authorities were searching for at least two other people - one who disappeared after being trapped in another car, and a teen swept away while trying to cross a swollen creek.
The Fire Department conducted more than 235 rescues across the city, authorities said. They continued their search into the evening.
The San Antonio International Airport by Saturday afternoon had recorded nearly 10 inches of rain since midnight, which has caused nearly all streams and rivers to flood.
Train collision causes bridge collapse
CHAFFEE, Mo. - A highway overpass in southeast Missouri collapsed early Saturday when rail cars slammed into one of the bridge’s pillars after a cargo train collision, authorities said. Seven people were injured, though none seriously.
The bridge collapsed after a Union Pacific train hit the side of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train at a rail intersection. Derailed rail cars then hit columns supporting the Highway M overpass, causing it to buckle and partially collapse.
The National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into the cause of the cargo train collision, which happened about 2:30 a.m. near Chaffee, a town of about 3,000 southwest of Cape Girardeau.
Only two vehicles were on the overpass at the time. Five people in the vehicles were taken to Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, as were a Union Pacific train conductor and an engineer. All seven had been released by Saturday afternoon, hospital spokesman Felecia Blanton said.
“You’re driving down the road and the next thing you know the bridge is not there. … It could have been really bad,” Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said.
The crash derailed about two dozen rail cars hauling scrap metal, automobiles and auto parts, tossing them into the overpass’ support columns. The highway was shut down for about 8 miles from Scott City to Chaffee.
The overpass was about 15 years old and in good condition but just couldn’t withstand the impact from the rail cars, Walter said.
Hagel to grads: Build culture of respect
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Saturday urged the Army’s newest officers to build “a culture of respect and dignity for every member of the military and society” as they assume leadership positions in a military facing sustained challenges around the globe, significant budget cuts at home and increasing reports of sexual assault in its ranks.
Sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military are “a profound betrayal of sacred oaths and sacred trusts,” Hagel said in a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York.
“This scourge must be stamped out,” he said. “We are all accountable and responsible for ensuring that this happens.
We cannot fail the Army or America. We cannot fail each other, and we cannot fail the men and women that we lead.”
Hagel thanked the graduating cadets for their choice of a career in national service, and noted that for more than a decade the ground forces “have shouldered a very heavy burden, doing the fighting and dying, and adapting under fire.”2 dead, 1 missing in N.Y. plane crash
EPHRATAH, N.Y. - Divers searched a large pond while investigators combed nearby woods Saturday for any sign of the pilot of a volunteer Angel Flight that crashed in upstate New York, killing two passengers.
The plane’s passengers were found dead Friday night near where the small plane crashed in Ephratah, about an hour west of Albany, Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey said. The bulk of the plane was found submerged in a pond, he said.
Angel Flight is a nonprofit group that arranges free air transportation from volunteer pilots for sick patients. Larry Camerlin, president and founder of Angel Flight Northeast, said the organization was “tremendously saddened” by news of the crash.
The twin-engine Piper PA 34 had departed from Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., and was headed to Rome, N.Y., before it crashed just after 5 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Kathleen Bergen said.
Officials haven’t yet identified the passengers or pilot.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what might have caused the crash.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 05/26/2013