ISSAQUAH, Wash: A major storm swept across the U.S. Northwest battering the region with strong winds and rain, causing widespread power outages, closing schools and downing trees that killed at least two people.
The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect as the strongest atmospheric river — a large plume of moisture — that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season overwhelmed the region. The storm system that hit starting Tuesday is considered a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly.
In California, the weather service extended a flood watch into Saturday for areas north of San Francisco. Up to 16 inches of rain (40 cm) was forecast in northern California and southwestern Oregon through Friday. Dangerous flash flooding, rock slides and debris flows were possible, officials warned.
A winter storm watch was in place for the northern Sierra Nevada above 3,500 feet (1,066 meters), where 15 inches (28 cm) of snow was possible over two days. Wind gusts could top 75 mph (120 kph) in mountain areas, forecasters said.
Heavy, wet snow was expected to continue along the Cascades and in parts of far northern California. Forecasters warned of blizzard and whiteout conditions and near impossible travel at pass level due to accumulation rates of 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.6 centimeters) per hour and wind gusts of up to 65 mph (105 kph).
Falling trees struck homes and littered roads across western Washington. In Lynnwood, a woman died Tuesday night when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, South County Fire said in a statement. In Bellevue, east of Seattle, a tree fell onto a home, killing a woman Tuesday night, fire officials said.
Tracy Meloy of Issaquah, Washington, felt well-prepared for the storm Tuesday afternoon, with dinner prepped and lanterns ready. But then she spent the night listening to wind-whipped debris hit the outside of her home, including a particularly loud “thump” around 9 p.m. On Wednesday morning she ventured outside to survey the damage to her neighborhood about 17 miles (27 kilometers) east of Seattle.
“Now that I’m standing here in front of the house, I can tell it’s the tree that was across the street,” Meloy said. The tree pulled down the power lines in front of her home. Limbs, leaves and other plants were strewn all over the road.
“It looks like a forest floor instead of a street,” she said.
The number of power outage reports in Washington fluctuated wildly Tuesday evening, but steadily declined to about 460,000 by Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. More than a dozen schools were closed in Seattle alone.
About 2,800 customers were reported to be without power Wednesday in Oregon, 38,000 in California and 10,000 around Carson City and Reno, Nevada. Three Reno schools were closed and semi-trucks were prohibited on the main highway between the two cities due to high winds. All chairlifts were shut down at the Mt. Rose Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe.
The first significant snow of the season in the Dakotas and Minnesota led to accidents and slippery roadways. The weather service said up to 16 inches (40 cm) of snow could fall in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota, and Minot could get up to 8 inches (20 cm) of snow. Winds were expected to be problematic in parts of Montana and Nebraska, with gusts up to 60 mph (97 kph), the weather service said.
Officials briefly advised no travel throughout northern North Dakota due to the wintry weather. State troopers in northern Minnesota responded to several accidents, including tractor-trailers that jackknifed on Interstate 94 after the roadway became slippery from snow and ice. The storm was contributing to high wind conditions in Juneau, Alaska, where gusts of up to 60 mph (96 kph) were expected.
The weather service warned people on the West Coast about the danger of trees during high winds, posting on X, “Stay safe by avoiding exterior rooms and windows and by using caution when driving.”
Southbound Interstate 5 was closed for an 11-mile (18-kilometer) stretch from Ashland, Oregon, to the border with California on Wednesday morning due to extreme winter weather conditions in northern California, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation. It was expected to be a long-term closure, the department said.
The weather service issued a flood watch for parts of southwestern Oregon through Friday evening, while rough winds and seas halted a ferry route in northwestern Washington between Port Townsend and Coupeville for part of the day.
Robert and Lisa Haynes, of Issaquah, Washington, surveyed the damage in their neighborhood Wednesday. Fallen branches or trees blocked driveways and roads, and they were stuck at home.
“It's like a snow day,” Robert Haynes said, “but with no snow.”
‘Bomb cyclone’ kills 2 and knocks out power to over half a million homes across the Northwest US
https://arab.news/bcavf
‘Bomb cyclone’ kills 2 and knocks out power to over half a million homes across the Northwest US
In a stunning setback, GOP conservatives join Democrats in blocking Trump’s big tax breaks bill
- Hard-right lawmakers want steeper spending cuts to Medicaid and the Biden-era green energy tax breaks
- Democrats, on the other hand, slammed the package as a “big, bad bill,” and “one big, beautiful betrayal”
WASHINGTON: In a setback, House Republicans failed Friday to push their big package of tax breaks and spending cuts through the Budget Committee, as a handful of conservatives joined all Democrats in a stunning vote against it.
The hard-right lawmakers are insisting on steeper spending cuts to Medicaid and the Biden-era green energy tax breaks, among other changes, before they will give their support to President Donald Trump’s “beautiful” bill. They warn the tax cuts alone would pile onto the nation’s $36 trillion debt.
The failed vote, 16-21, stalls, for now, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s push to have the package approved next week. But the Budget Committee plans to reconvene Sunday to try again. Lawmakers vowed to negotiate into the weekend as Trump is returning to Washington from the Middle East.
“Something needs to change or you’re not going to get my support,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
Tallying a whopping 1,116 pages, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, named with a nod to Trump, is teetering at a critical moment. Johnson is determined to resolve the problems with the package that he believes will inject a dose of stability into into a wavering economy.
With few votes to spare from his slim majority, the Republicans are trying to pass it over the staunch objections of Democrats who slammed the package as a “big, bad bill,” or as Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, called it, “one big, beautiful betrayal.”
Ahead of Friday’s vote, Trump had implored his party to fall in line.
“Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’” the Republican president posted on social media. “We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”
The Budget panel is one of the final stops before the package is sent to the full House floor for a vote, which is still expected sometime next week. Typically, the job of the Budget Committee is more administrative as it compiles the work of 11 committees that drew up various parts of the big bill.
But Friday’s meeting proved momentous even before the votes were tallied.
The conservatives, many from the Freedom Caucus, had been warning they would block the bill, as they holdout for steeper cuts. At the same time, GOP lawmakers from high-tax states including New York are demanding a deeper tax deduction, known as SALT, for their constituents.
Four Republican conservatives initially voted against the package — Roy and Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia. Then one, Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, switched his vote to no in a procedural step so it could be reconsidered later, saying afterward he was confident they’d “get this done.”
Norman insisted he was not defying the president — “this isn’t a ‘grandstand,’” he said — as he and the others push from Trump’s priorities.
In their quest for deeper reductions, the conservatives are particularly eyeing Medicaid, the health care program for some 70 million Americans. They want new work requirements for aid recipients to start immediately, rather than on Jan. 1, 2029, as the package proposes.
Democrats emphasized that millions of people would lose their health coverage and food stamps assistance if the bill passes while the wealthiest Americans would reap enormous tax cuts. They also said it would increase future deficits.
“That is bad economics. It is unconscionable,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, the top Democratic lawmaker on the panel.
At the same time, talks are also underway with the New Yorkers have been unrelenting in their demand for a much larger SALT deduction than what is proposed in the bill, which could send the overall cost of the package skyrocketing.
As it stands, the bill proposes tripling what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year.
Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the New York lawmakers leading the SALT effort, said they have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.
The conservatives and the New Yorkers are at odds, each jockeying as Johnson labors to pass the package from the House by Memorial Day and send it onto the Senate.
At its core, the sprawling package extends the existing income tax cuts that were approved during Trump’s first term, in 2017, and adds new ones that the president campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and some auto loans.
It increases some tax breaks for middle-income earners, including a bolstered standard deduction of $32,000 for joint filers and a temporary $500 boost to the child tax credit, bringing it to $2,500.
It also provides an infusion of $350 billion for Trump’s deportation agenda and to bolster the Pentagon.
To offset more than $5 trillion in lost revenue, the package proposes rolling back other tax breaks, namely the green energy tax credits approved as part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Some conservatives want those to end immediately.
The package also seeks to cover the costs by slashing more than $1 trillion from health care and food assistance programs over the course of a decade, in part by imposing work requirements on able-bodied adults.
Certain Medicaid recipients would need to engage in 80 hours a month of work or other community options to receive health care. Older Americans receiving food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would also see the program’s current work requirement for able-bodied participants without dependents extended to include those ages 55-64. States would also be required to shoulder a greater share of the program’s cost.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates at least 7.6 million fewer people with health insurance and about 3 million a month fewer SNAP recipients with the changes.
While Republicans insist the package will pay for itself, partly with economic growth, outside budget analysts are skeptical and say it will add trillions of dollars to the nation’s deficits and debt.
Biden audio release pressures Democrats who would rather talk about Trump
PHOENIX: Joe Biden’s time in public office is now behind him, but his age and mental acuity have become a litmus test for the next leaders in his party.
Audio was published Friday from portions of interviews Biden gave to federal prosecutors in 2023, the latest in a stream of reports putting questions about Biden’s health back in the spotlight. Months after former President Kamala Harris lost to President Donald Trump, a new book alleges that White House aides covered up Biden’s physical and mental decline.
Several potential Democratic contenders for the 2028 nomination have been asked in recent days whether they believe Biden was declining in office or whether he should have sought reelection before a disastrous debate performance led to his withdrawal.
Many Democrats would prefer to focus on Trump’s second term. Trump has done his best to prevent that — mentioning Biden’s name an average of six times per day during his first 100 days in office, according to an NBC News analysis — and Republicans have followed his lead, betting that voters frustrated by Trump’s policy moves will still prefer him over memories of an unpopular presidency.
In the race for Virginia governor, one of this year’s highest-profile contests, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is running a pair of digital ads tying Democrat Abigail Spanberger to Biden, with images of the two hugging and the former president calling her a friend.
“The stench of Joe Biden still lingers on the Democratic Party,” Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett said. “We have to do the hard work of fixing that, and I think that includes telling the truth, frankly, about when we were wrong.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told Politico this week that “there’s no doubt” that Biden, now 82, experienced cognitive decline as president.
Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary, wasn’t nearly as blunt but still stopped short of defending Biden’s decision to run. He responded “maybe” when asked Tuesday whether the Democratic Party would have been better off if Biden hadn’t tried to run for a second term.
“Right now, with the advantage of hindsight, I think most people would agree that that’s the case,” Buttigieg told reporters during a stop in Iowa.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he didn’t see signs of mental or physical decline in his meetings with Biden.
“I saw him a few times,” he told CNN this week. “I certainly went to the White House whenever there was an opportunity for me to make the case for something for people in my state. And I never had the experience of anything other than a guy who brought to the table a lot of good ideas about how to solve problems.”
The book “Original Sin,” by journalists Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios, revives a core controversy of Biden’s presidency: his decision to run for a second term despite voters, including Democrats, telling pollsters that he should not run again. Biden would have been 86 at the end of a second term had he won in November.
A spokesperson for Biden did not respond to a request for comment.
“We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job,” the spokesperson has told many media outlets in response to the book.
Late Friday, Axios published portions from audio recordings of Biden’s six hours of interviews with prosecutors investigating his handling of classified documents after his term as vice president ended in 2017.
The Biden administration had already released transcripts of the interviews, but the recordings shed light on special counsel Robert Hur’s characterization of Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and appeared to validate his claim that the then-president struggled to recall key dates, including the year his son Beau died of cancer in 2015.
Biden and his aides pushed back aggressively against Hur’s report, which they characterized as a partisan hit. Biden was at that time — early 2024 — still planning to run for a second term and fending off accusations that he was too old for another four years in the job.
The recordings released by Axios include Biden’s discussion of his son’s death. His responses to some of the prosecutors’ questions are punctuated by long pauses, and his lawyers at times stepped in to help him recall dates and timelines.
Before he dropped his reelection bid last summer, Biden faced widespread doubts within his own party, even as Democratic leaders dismissed both a series of verbal flubs and Republican allegations about his declining acuity.
In January 2022, just a year into Biden’s first term, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that only 48 percent of Democrats wanted him to seek reelection. That fell to 37 percent of Democrats in an AP-NORC poll conducted in February 2023. Three-quarters of Americans — and 69 percent of Democrats — said in August 2023 that they believed Biden was too old to serve as president for another four-year term.
And shortly after his debate flop, nearly two-thirds of Democrats said Biden should withdraw from the race.
Biden and former first lady Jill Biden appeared on ABC’s “The View” in a preemptive defense of his health and decision-making before the first excerpts of “Original Sin” were published.
He said he’s responsible for Trump’s victory but attributed Harris’ loss, at least in part, to sexism and racism. He maintained that he would have won had he remained the Democratic nominee. Both Bidens rejected concerns about his cognitive decline.
Patricia McEnerney, a 74-year-old Democrat in Goodyear, Arizona, said Biden should not have tried to run again.
“I think it’s sad the way it ended,” she said.
She compared him to Douglas MacArthur, the World War II and Korean War general famously dismissed by President Harry Truman.
“I think he needs to stop giving interviews. I think that would help,” McEnerney said. “Like MacArthur said, generals just fade away.”
Janet Stumps, a 66-year-old Democrat also from Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, had a different view.
“I don’t think it’s going to hurt the Democrats,” Stumps said. “I feel badly that he feels he has to defend himself. I don’t think he has to. Everybody ages. And the fact that he did what he did at his age, I think he should be commended for it.”
Hackett, the Democratic strategist, predicted Biden won’t be a major factor in the 2026 midterms or the 2028 presidential primaries. But he said Democrats who want voters to trust them would be well-served “by telling the truth about the mistakes that our party made in the run-up to 2024.”
“Those mistakes were largely driven by Joe Biden, and I think any Democrat not willing to say that is not really prepared to face the voters, who want the truth and they want authenticity,” Hackett said.
Rick Wilson, a former GOP strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, said Republicans want to talk about Biden to avoid defending Trump. But he said the strategy is folly.
Besides “political nerds,” he said, “no one else cares.”
10 escape from New Orleans jail through hole in cell wall while lone guard left to get food
NEW ORLEANS: Ten men broke out of a New Orleans jail Friday in an audacious overnight escape by fleeing through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a wall while the lone guard assigned to their cell pod was away getting food, authorities said.
Nine of the escapees, which include suspects charged with murder, remain on the lam following the breakout that the local sheriff says may have been aided by members within the department.
Surveillance footage, shared with media during a press conference, showed the escapees sprinting out of the facility — some wearing orange clothing and others in white. They proceeded to scale a fence, using blankets to avoid being cut by barbed wire. Some could be seen sprinting across the nearby interstate.
A photograph obtained by The Associated Press from law enforcement shows the opening behind a toilet in a cell that the men escaped through. Above the hole are scrawled messages that include “To Easy LoL” with an arrow pointing at the gap.
The absence of the 10 men, who also utilized facility deficiencies that officials have long complained about in their escape, went unnoticed for hours. It was not until a routine morning headcount, more than seven hours after the men fled the facility, that law enforcement learned of the escape.
Officials from the sheriff’s office say there was no deputy physically at the pod, where the fugitives had been held. They said there was a technician, a civilian who was there to observe the pod, but she had “stepped away to grab food.”
Soon after the escape, one of the men, Kendall Myles, 20, was apprehended after a brief foot chase through the French Quarter. He had previously escaped twice from juvenile detention centers.
Sheriff blames ‘defective locks’ and possibly inside help
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said the men were able to get out of the Orleans Justice Center because of “defective locks.” Hutson said she has continuously raised concerns about the locks to officials and, as recently as this week, advocated for money to fix the ailing infrastructure.
Hutson said there are indications that people inside her department helped the fugitives escape.
“We do acknowledge there is no way people can get out of this facility without there being some type of lapse in security,” Hutson said of the jail, where she says 1,400 people are being held. “It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for anybody to get out of this facility without help.”
The escapees yanked open a door to enter the cell with the hole in it around 1 a.m.
They shed their jail uniforms once out of the facility, and it is still unclear how some of them obtained regular clothing so quickly, officials said.
Authorities did not notice the men were missing until 8:30 a.m. Authorities initially said 11 had escaped, but at a Friday afternoon news conference said one man thought to have escaped was in a different cell.
Three employees have been placed on suspension pending the outcome of the investigation. It was not immediately clear whether any of the employees were suspected of helping with the escape.
Who are the fugitives?
The escapees range from 19 years old to 42. Most of the men are in their 20s.
One of the fugitives, Derrick Groves, was convicted on two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder last year for his role in the 2018 Mardi Gras Day shootings of two men. He also faces a charge of battery against a correctional facility employee, court records show. Law enforcement warned that he may attempt to locate witnesses in the murder trial.
Another escapee, Corey Boyd, had pled not guilty to a pending second-degree murder charge.
Hutson said the police department is actively working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to search for the fugitives.
Officials use facial recognition to find one fugitive
Police relied on facial recognition technology to identify and capture one fugitive, said Bryan LaGarde, executive director of Project NOLA, a nonprofit operating more than 5,000 cameras around New Orleans. His organization, which partners with Louisiana authorities, received the list of escapees and entered their images into the system — finding two within the French Quarter in minutes.
“When we saw them, they were wearing street clothes. They were walking openly in the street. They were keeping their heads down and checking over their shoulder.” LaGarde said, adding that the other fugitive walked out of sight of the cameras.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill called the escape “beyond unacceptable” and said local authorities had waited too long to inform the public.
She said she has reached out to surrounding states to alert them about the escape. Murrill said the fugitives have had “ample” time to escape to “frankly anywhere across the country.”
New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said her agency has put “a full court effort” to respond to the escape and are working with the FBI and US marshals.
Officers were focused on identifying and providing protection for people who may have testified in their cases or may be in danger. One family has been “removed” from their home, Kirkpatrick said.
“If there is anyone helping or harboring these escapees, you will be charged,” Kirkpatrick added.
Turmoil at New Orleans’ jail
New Orleans’ jail has for more than a decade been subject to federal monitoring and a consent decree intended to improve conditions.
Security problems and violence persisted even after the city opened the Orleans Justice Center in 2015, replacing the decaying Orleans Parish Prison, which had seen its own string of escapes and dozens of in-custody deaths.
A federal judge declared in 2013 that the lockup had festered into an unconstitutional setting for people incarcerated there.
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said staff is “stretched thin” at the facility, which is around 60 percent staffed.
The jail contained numerous “high security” people convicted of violent offenses who required a “restrictive housing environment that did not exist,” said Jay Mallett, Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office chief of Corrections. The sheriff’s office was in the process of transferring dozens to more secure locations.
Two dead and others injured in Las Vegas gym shooting, police say
LAS VEGAS: There was a shooting inside a gym, killing two people, with multiple other people injured, Las Vegas police said.
One person died as gunfire erupted at the Las Vegas Athletic Club on the city’s west side, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Undersheriff Andrew Walsh said Friday.
“The suspect in this incident has been shot and there is no longer a threat to the public,” he said.
In a social media post, police said the suspect in the shooting was confirmed dead at a local hospital.
Trump calls ex-FBI chief Comey a ‘dirty cop’ after alleged threat
- Comey made a post on Instagram showingan image of “86 47” spelled out in sea shells
- Trump's aides and allies charged that it was a veiled call to assassinate the president
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump labeled former FBI director James Comey a “dirty cop” Friday over a social media post that the US president deemed a veiled call for assassination and which prompted a Secret Service probe.
Comey made a now-deleted post on Instagram the previous day that showed an image of “86 47” spelled out in sea shells, with “86” being slang for kill and Trump the 47th president.
“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News broadcast on Friday. “That meant assassination, and it says it loud and clear. Now, he wasn’t very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant.”
“He’s calling for the assassination of the president,” Trump said, branding Comey “a dirty cop.”
Trump was wounded in the ear during an assassination attempt at a campaign rally last July in Butler, Pennsylvania, and has faced other threats.
Comey said Thursday on Instagram that he posted “a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.”
“I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he said.
The “8647” and “8646” themes have been used as political slogans and on T-shirts during the administrations of both Trump and his predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden, the 46th US president.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says on its website that one recent meaning of the term 86 was “to kill” but that it had not adopted it “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”
Trump administration officials were unconvinced, with Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem saying DHS and the US Secret Service -- which is charged with protecting the president -- were investigating and "will respond appropriately."
FBI Director Kash Patel meanwhile said the law enforcement agency was "in communication with the Secret Service" and that it would "provide all necessary support."
And Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Comey had "issued a call to action to murder the president of the United States," adding: "We fully support the Secret Service investigation into Comey's threat on President Trump's life."
On Friday, US media reported Comey was questioned by the Secret Service over his post.
The meeting began around 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) and lasted about an hour, the official said. Comey appeared voluntarily after being asked to come in, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Gabbard dismissed Comey’s explanation as absurd, and said the “8647” slogan has been used by anti-Trump protesters and was a veiled call to action against the sitting president.
Early in his first term, Trump fired Comey, who as FBI director had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia.
Comey has been a sharp critic of his former boss, calling him “morally unfit” to lead in a 2018 interview.
Trump himself was accused of using Twitter posts to incite rioters, who attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent the certification of Biden’s election victory.
Trump last year also posted on social media a video that featured an image of Biden, who was then president, with his hands and feet tied together in the back of a pickup truck.
