Ohio

USA: EPA chief at train derailment site: ‘Trust the government’

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got a first-hand look Thursday at the toll left by a freight train derailment in Ohio, where toxic chemicals spilled or were burned off, leaving the stench of fresh paint nearly two weeks later.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who walked along a creek that still reeks of chemicals, sought to reassure skeptical residents that the water is fit for drinking and the air safe to breathe around East Palestine, where just under 5,000 people live near the Pennsylvania state line.

USA: Crews release toxic chemicals from derailed tankers in Ohio

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Crews released toxic chemicals into the air from five derailed tanker cars that were in danger of exploding Monday and began burning it after warning residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line to leave immediately or face the possibility of death.

Flames and black smoke billowed high into the sky from the derailment site late in the afternoon, about an hour after authorities said the controlled release would begin.

USA: Derailed train cars in Ohio drained of explosive chemical

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Crews in eastern Ohio conducted operations on Monday to drain and burn off an "unstable" toxic chemical cargo from five rail cars of a freight train that derailed in a fiery wreck three days earlier, prompting mass evacuations, authorities said.

The "controlled release" of pressurized vinyl chloride, a highly flammable and carcinogenic gas, began with a scheduled explosion, followed by continuous burning of the substance, said Sandy Mackey, a spokesperson for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

US cargo train derails, causing huge fire and leaking hazardous gas

EAST PALESTINE (Ohio, US), Feb 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A cargo train derailed in the midwestern United States, sparking a massive fire and triggering the release of small amounts of vinyl chloride, a hazardous chemical, officials said Saturday.

No injuries or fatalities were reported after around 50 cars of the 140-car train came off the tracks late Friday near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state border.

The Norfolk Southern train was shipping cargo from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, when it derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

USA: 50-car train derailment causes big fire, evacuations in Ohio

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — A train derailment and resulting large fire prompted an evacuation order in an Ohio village near the Pennsylvania state line on Friday night, covering the area in billows of smoke lit orange by the flames below.

About 50 cars derailed in East Palestine as a train was carrying a variety of freight from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, rail operator Norfolk Southern said in a statement Saturday. There was no immediate information about what caused the derailment. No injuries were reported.

USA: State lawmakers turn to creative solutions in speaker fights

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — As Republican infighting debilitates Washington, lawmakers at some U.S. statehouses have managed to launch sessions complicated by similar GOP partisan divides or razor-thin margins of party control with a host of creative — if yet untested — solutions.

The approaches differ by state: a delicate working agreement here, a bipartisan truce there. “The commonality is the standing on the edge of the precipice,” said David Niven, an associate professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

USA: Biden’s mixed record forces some Dems into odd balancing act

CINCINNATI (AP) — Democratic House candidate Greg Landsman can tick off how his party’s control of Congress and the White House has benefited his city.

The bipartisan infrastructure deal will mean upgrades to the heavily traveled highway bridge linking Cincinnati with its airport and northern Kentucky while bolstering a vital westside viaduct. COVID-19 relief funding meant training for more new police academy recruits. A sprawling spending package capped insulin prices.

USA: Jan. 6 hearing witness avoids jail time for Capitol riot

(AP) --- An Ohio man who testified at a congressional hearing about why he stormed the U.S. Capitol avoided a term of imprisonment when a federal judge sentenced him on Thursday to two years of probation for his role in the mob’s attack.

After his televised testimony at a U.S. House committee’s hearing in July, Stephen Ayres approached and apologized to a group of police officers who had struggled to repel the crowd of rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.

Wanted: 7,000 construction workers for Intel chip plants: USA

JOHNSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s largest-ever economic development project comes with a big employment challenge: how to find 7,000 construction workers in an already booming building environment when there’s also a national shortage of people working in the trades.

At hand is the $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing operation near the state’s capital, announced by Intel earlier this year. When the two factories, known as fabs, open in 2025, the facility will employ 3,000 people with an average salary of around $135,000.

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