East Coast Braces for Powerful Winter Storm as Nation Grapples with Multiple News Events
The East Coast was bracing for a powerful winter storm Saturday, while across the nation, a federal judge denied a request to halt a federal operation in Minnesota, House Democrats sought access to Jeffrey Epstein case files, and the NBA suspended a Sixers player for violating the league's anti-drug policy. Meanwhile, a young survivor of a deadly plane crash in Philadelphia continued his long road to recovery.
About 240 million people were under cold weather advisories and winter storm warnings as a powerful system threatened to bring howling winds, flooding, and heavy snow to the East Coast, according to CBS News. The region was still digging out from last week's frigid winter weather. Temperatures were plummeting, with a low of minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit recorded in West Virginia, said Bob Oravec, the lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. More than 127,000 homes and businesses, mostly in Mississippi and Tennessee, remained without power after last week's storm, according to poweroutage.us. In Nashville, Tennessee, where temperatures were in the teens, frustrations bubbled as more than 47,000 were still without power. Terry Miles, 59, said his home was without power.
In Minnesota, a federal judge denied the state's motion for a temporary restraining order to halt "Operation Metro Surge" on Saturday, CBS News reported. Judge Kate Menendez stated in court documents that Minnesota and its cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul had not met their burden of proof. The argument to halt operations stated that the federal operation was "causing harm to the Twin Cities and State themselves, as well as their residents." Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice have called the lawsuit "legally frivolous." Menendez cited another recent case where the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently vacated the preliminary injunction ruling that restricted the force federal agents can use on peaceful protesters, saying that court case had "much more settled precede."
Democratic members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee were seeking immediate access to the full Jeffrey Epstein case files from the Justice Department, CBS News reported. In a formal inquiry sent Saturday, the lawmakers said the need for a review of the papers was "urgent," in part because of a forthcoming public committee hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi. The committee's inquiry stated the panel had questions about why the Justice Department released only about half of the estimated pages of Epstein files. "Our review is particularly urgent because DOJ itself claims to have identified over 6 million potentially responsive pages, but after releasing only about half of themincluding over 200,000 pages that DOJ redacted or withheldsays strangely that it has f," the inquiry stated.
The NBA announced Saturday that Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George was suspended 25 games for an unspecified violation of the NBA's Anti-Drug Program, CBS News reported. The suspension will keep him out of competition until March. The league did not disclose the nature of the violation or the substance involved. The 25-game suspension indicates that this was a first violation by George, according to the agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association. The suspension will cost George roughly 11.7 million of his 51.7 million salary, or about 469,691.72 for each of the 25 games missed. George gave a statement to ESPN stating that "in the course of recently seeking treatment for."
One year after a deadly plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia, Ramesses Vazquez-Viana, now 10 years old, continued his road to recovery, CBS News reported. Ramesses was 9 years old when a medical jet crashed and burned most of his body. Six people traveling on the plane and two people on the ground were killed, and two dozen people were injured in the aftermath of the tragic accident, which decimated homes and cars near Roosevelt Boulevard and Cottman Avenue. Virgen Viera identified her grandson Ramesses as the person seen running through the street a few days after the deadly crash, stating "I ask for prayers."
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