FAA acting chief defends handling of Boeing Max safety approval
WASHINGTON — The acting director of the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that Boeing should have done more to explain an automated flight-control system on its 737 Max aircraft before two deadly crashes, but he defended his agency’s safety certification of the plane and its decision not to ground the jet until other regulators around the world had already done so.
The FAA official, Daniel Elwell, said he expects Boeing to submit a fix to the plane’s flight-control software “in the next week or so.” The FAA will analyze the changes, conduct test flights and determine what additional pilot training is needed before letting the planes fly again, he said.
“In the U.S., the 737 Max will return to service only when the FAA’s analysis of the facts and technical data indicate that it is safe to do so,” he told members of the House aviation subcommittee.
During a two-hour hearing, lawmakers pressed Elwell on the FAA’s reliance on designated Boeing employees during the planes’ certification process and why the agency didn’t ground the planes sooner.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., told Elwell that the public believes “you were in bed with those you were supposed to be regulating, and that’s why it took so long” to ground the planes.
Responders begin recovering crash wreckage
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Federal accident investigators say responders began recovering the wreckage of two sightseeing planes carrying cruise ship passengers that were involved in a deadly midair collision near the southeast Alaska town of Ketchikan.
National Transportation Safety Board member Jennifer Homendy said Wednesday that the larger of the floatplanes was recovered and put on a barge to be transported to Ketchikan. The NTSB has a team of investigators from Washington, D.C., at the scene.
Homendy says the recovery of the smaller plane is underway and will take longer because of the large debris field from that aircraft.
The floatplanes carrying cruise ship tourists collided Monday, killing six people. Ten others were rescued.
Meanwhile, officials identified the six people who died in the collision.
Alaska State Troopers in a statement late Tuesday said four were American, one was Australian and one was Canadian.
The cruise ship passenger victims who went on the flight excursions were identified as 46-year-old Louis Botha of San Diego; 56-year-old Simon Brodie from Temple, New South Wales, Australia; 62-year-old Cassandra Webb from St. Louis; 39-year-old Ryan Wilk from Utah; and 37-year-old Elsa Wilk of Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Also killed was the pilot of one of the planes, 46-year-old Randy Sullivan of Ketchikan
Officials: PG&E equipment sparked deadly California wildfire
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. power lines caused a fire that killed 85 people — the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, California fire officials said Wednesday.
Cal Fire said the transmission lines owned and operated by the San Francisco-based utility sparked the Nov. 8 fire in the Pulga area that nearly destroyed Paradise.
The investigation also identified a second nearby ignition site involving vegetation and electrical distribution lines, also owned and operated by the San Francisco-based utility.
The second fire was quickly consumed by the initial fire.
Lynsey Paulo, a spokeswoman for PG&E, did not immediately comment.
Anxiety, hope as church schools wait to reopen in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Catholic officials and parents in Sri Lanka are hopeful that church-run schools will begin to reopen soon for the first time since last month’s devastating Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels.
All of the island nation’s schools were set to reopen the day after the bombings following a two-week break, but they remained closed after the attacks, which killed more than 250 people and injured hundreds more. Government schools reopened last week, but many children stayed home, fearing another attack.
Catholic schools, however, have stayed shut out worried that other Catholic properties could be targeted in further attacks.
In a memo to Catholic institutions earlier this month, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, said he had information from a trusted foreign source that a famous church and a lay institution were to be attacked. The church confirmed that the memo, which first appeared on social media, was authentic.
On Sunday, the Catholic Church held the first regular Sunday Mass since the April 21 coordinated suicide bombings, amid tight security. Sunday services had been canceled the two previous weekends apprehensive of more attacks, leaving the faithful to hear Mass via live TV transmission from Ranjith’s residence.
Later Sunday, Ranjith gave Sri Lanka’s Catholic school administrators permission to reopen on an individual basis in coordination with local security officials.
Trump criticizes prosecutors at event for fallen officers
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump used a ceremony for fallen law enforcement officers on Wednesday to criticize big-city prosecutors he asserts don’t go after criminals who pose a severe threat to public safety.
Trump pledged to the families of fallen officers that the country will “never, ever leave your side, never disappoint you” but went beyond memorializing for much of the annual event.
He singled out prosecutors in Philadelphia and Chicago as being part of a “dangerous trend” by deciding not to prosecute “many criminals who pose a severe threat to public safety and community well-being.” He provided scant context for the claim, and prosecutors in those cities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The president also renewed his calls for changes to the nation’s immigration laws, citing the shooting death last December of a Northern California police officer, Cpl. Ronil Singh. Trump said the suspect in Singh’s killing could have been kept out with “border security, with the wall, with whatever the hell it takes.” Paulo Virgen Mendoza, suspected of being in the country illegally, has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Trump also made an apparent reference to the case of actor Jussie Smollett, saying that “those who file false police reports should face full legal consequences.”
Less fat, more fruit may cut risk of dying of breast cancer
For the first time, a large experiment suggests that trimming dietary fat and eating more fruits and vegetables may lower a woman’s risk of dying of breast cancer.
The results are notable because they come from a rigorous test involving 49,000 women over two decades rather than other studies that try to draw health conclusions from observations about how people eat.
Healthy women who modified their diets for at least eight years and who later developed breast cancer had a 21% lower risk of dying of the disease compared to others who continued to eat as usual.
However, that risk was small to start with and diet’s effect was not huge, so it took 20 years for the difference between the groups to appear. The diet change also did not lower the risk of developing breast cancer, which was the study’s main goal.
Still, doctors say the results show a way women might improve their odds of survival.
Mnuchin optimistic on trade battles; Wall Street approves
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that the U.S. is making progress on lifting tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico, potentially overcoming a key hurdle toward approval of a trade agreement between the three countries.
Addressing another contentious trade issue, Mnuchin said he expects to soon travel to Beijing with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to resume negotiations on the trade dispute between the U.S. and China.
Mnuchin’s positive comments on trade before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee helped reverse early losses on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a gain of 115 points.
“I think we are close to an understanding with Mexico and Canada,” Mnuchin said in a response to a question on the status of the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed on the two countries.
President Donald Trump last year slapped tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from China and a number of other nations, invoking a rarely used provision of a 1962 law to claim that the foreign metals posed a threat to U.S. national security.
Police execute search warrant at Catholic Diocese of Dallas
DALLAS — Investigators who were “thwarted” during earlier investigations of child sexual abuse by priests on Wednesday searched the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas to obtain evidence of sexual misconduct, according to a police commander and police records.
Investigators searched the diocesan headquarters, a storage unit it uses and the offices of a church, police Maj. Max Geron told reporters.
“We believe at this point that the execution of the search warrants was wholly appropriate for the furtherance of the investigation at this point,” Geron said.
The events began last August with the investigation of Edmundo Paredes , a former priest who is believed to have fled Texas following claims that he abused three teenagers. That investigation resulted in allegations of abuse by others, Geron said.
Copies of the warrants refer to the 70-year-old Paredes and four others. All five were named in a report released in January by the diocese that identified former priests credibly accused of sexually assaulting a child.
