Month: June 2022

On Monday, Yellowstone National Park closed all entrances into the park amid heavy flooding conditions which caused rockslides, mudslides on roadways, and power outages in multiple areas of the park. The National Park Service (“NPS “) said in a statement: “Effective immediately, no inbound visitor traffic will be allowed into the park until conditions stabilize and the park can assess damage to roads and bridges and other facilities. This includes visitors with lodging and camping reservations.” In a statement earlier Monday morning, the NPS said visitors currently in the northern portion of the park were being evacuated.

The NPS added that due to heavy rainfall expected over the next several days, roads may be closed “for an extended period of time,” and those who plan to visit the park “in the upcoming weeks should pay close attention to the status of road conditions.   Multiple sections of roads throughout the park have been washed out between Gardiner and Cooke City, Montana, and multiple bridges may be affected. Multiple roads in the southern portion of the park are also on the verge of being flooded, further restricting access.”

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Wall Street plunged into what’s called a bear market on Monday, as investors grew increasingly fearful about a fragile economy and rising interest rates. The S&P 500 was more than 20% below its record set early this year.

The Dow (INDU) sank 876 points or 2.8%. The Nasdaq was down by 4.7% and has tumbled more than 10% in the past two trading sessions.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 151.23 points to 3,749.63 and dropped 21.8% below its record set early this year to put it into what investors call a bear market.  Prices fell worldwide for everything from bonds to bitcoin, and some of the sharpest drops hit what had been big winners of the easier low-rate era, such as high-growth technology stocks and other former darlings of investors. Tesla slumped 7.1%, and Amazon dropped 5.5%. GameStop tumbled 8.4%.

Some of the biggest hits came for cryptocurrencies, which soared early in the pandemic. Bitcoin dropped more than 14% from a day earlier and dropped below $23,400, putting it back to where it was in late 2020 and down from a peak of $68,990 late last year.

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On Sunday, a bipartisan group of 20 senators announced an agreement on legislation including gun restrictions and mental health and school security investments in an effort to curb mass shootings. The 20 lawmakers — 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans — led by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced the package they said would “protect America’s children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the threat of violence across our country.”  They wrote: “Families are scared, and it is our duty to come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities.” 

The agreed-upon package includes federal grants for state to create and administer so-called “red flag” laws, and further funds investment in children and family mental health services, expanding mental health and supportive services in schools and access to mental and behavioral health services via telehealth. The deal would also seek to tighten gun laws and requiring an investigative review period of juvenile and mental health records for people younger than 21 seeking to purchase a firearm.

Sixty votes are needed for passage in the Senate with the split 50-50 among Democrats and Republicans, and Vice President Kamela Harris casting the tie-breaking vote for the legislation.  President Biden showed support for the package, saying in a statement however that it “does not do everything that I think is needed.  With bipartisan support, there are no excuses for delay, and no reason why it should not quickly move through the Senate and the House. Each day that passes, more children are killed in this country: the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives.”

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Former Governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is among a group of candidates projected to advance to Alaska’s four-person special House race in August.

Palin, who is launching her first political campaign in the state since resigning as Alaska’s governor in 2009, has garnered 30% of the vote. Republican Nick Begich III, the grandson of former Democratic Rep. Nick Begich was second with 19% of the vote and nonpartisan Al Gross, a surgeon who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate as an independent in 2020, was third with 12%.

It remained unclear Sunday who the fourth candidate to advance to August’s special race would be with 108,981 of the nearly 140,000 of the votes counted in the election that was conducted through mail-in voting. Democratic former State Rep. Mary Peltola was in fourth place as of Sunday morning with 7% of the vote, trailed by Republican Alaska Native leader Tara Sweeney with 5%, independent Santa Claus — born Thomas O’Connor — at 4.5% and energy lawyer Jeff Lowenfels with 4%.

Final results of the election could still be days away as election officials will accept ballots up to 10 days after election day if they are postmarked by June 11. In August, voters will rank the four remaining candidates in order of preference. The winner of the election will serve out the remainder of Republican Alaska Rep. Don Young’s term. Young died at the age of 88 in March, having served since 1973.

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Maryland police have confirmed that three people are dead and one critically injured after a shooting at a factory in Smithsburg, Maryland on Thursday afternoon. The factory, Columbia Machine, manufactures concrete products equipment. Smithsburg is about 70 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said it responded to reports of an active shooter at Columbia Machine at @ 2:30 p.m., and found the victims. The sheriff’s office said that the alleged shooter fled the scene, but was apprehended by Maryland State Police in nearby Hagerstown based on a description of the suspect. The suspect and a state trooper exchanged gunfire, and both were injured and transported for medical treatment.

Washington County Sheriff spokesperson Sgt. Carly Hose said the alleged shooter is a man, though no additional information on the suspect or a possible motive was released.

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