VA nominee gets backing of panel
WASHINGTON — A Senate panel voted Tuesday to approve President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead Veterans Affairs, a department beset by political infighting and turmoil over providing health care.
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee agreed on voice vote to back Robert Wilkie, currently serving as a Pentagon undersecretary.
Wilkie has pledged to “shake up complacency” at the VA, which has struggled with long waits in providing medical treatment to millions of veterans.
Under repeated questioning by Democrats during his confirmation hearing last month, the Air Force and Navy veteran insisted he would not seek to privatize the government’s second-largest agency. Trump promised during the 2016 campaign to steer more patients to the private sector, calling the VA a "most corrupt" agency.
A vote by the full Senate on confirming Wilkie could be held as early as next week.
N.D. twister rips up city’s RV park
WATFORD CITY, N.D. — A newborn baby was killed and more than two dozen people were injured when a tornado whipped through a North Dakota oil patch city early Tuesday, overturning recreational vehicles and demolishing more than 100 structures, officials said.
The storm moved through Watford City, in the northwestern part of the state, shortly after midnight, hitting an RV park the hardest, according to sheriff’s officials. About 20 of the reported 28 injured were staying at the Prairie View RV Park where high winds overturned some campers and damaged mobile homes.
National Weather Service meteorologist John Paul Martin classified the tornado as an EF2, which is defined by winds speeds between 111 and 135 mph. He said wind speeds reached 127 mph in Watford City.
McKenzie County Sheriff Gary Schwartzenberger told The Bismarck Tribune late Tuesday that a week-old boy died from injuries suffered when the family’s trailer home flipped during the storm. The child has not yet been identified.
Schwartzenberger said his on-site commander reported that 122 structures in the park were destroyed. In addition to those structures, there were many with moderate to minor damage.
Volunteer firemen accused in arsons
LUMBERTON, N.C. — Authorities have arrested 10 North Carolina volunteer firefighters and accused them of setting fire to abandoned buildings and woods.
Robeson County Sheriff Ken Sealey said in a statement Tuesday that the firefighters were from the Fairmont Rural and Orrum fire departments, and were involved in a conspiracy to set the fires over the past 18 months.
The sheriff said there are approximately 90 arson-related charges in the investigation with more expected.
Sealey said a former Maxton police officer and a state corrections officer were among those arrested.
Sealey’s statement didn’t cite a motive. None of those charged has been identified.
Bail for the former officers is set at $200,000. Bail for the others is $100,000.