1 Hurricane Dorian Back Up To Cat 3, Moves Closer To Carolina Coast
Hurricane Dorian began flexing her muscle overnight – and is once again, a category three hurricane. That is certainly unwelcome news for the Carolinas, who are expecting to begin feeling her wrath today. How close she gets is unclear, but the wind, and more importantly, the rain is expected to pack a powerful punch – perhaps even making landfall. Meanwhile, the death toll from Dorian is rising in the Bahamas. The country's health minister Duane Sands has confirmed that at least 20 people are dead. That number is expected to rise as crews work through the widespread destruction left behind on the islands, with homes and buildings completely demolished. "We've had an absolute horrendous tragedy, numbers of lives lost,” says Sands. “And we have not completed the door-to-door.” As the recovery efforts continue, the Walt Disney Company is donating more than a million-dollars to help the hurricane relief efforts. The company says its efforts will go toward helping nonprofits that will be providing supplies and rebuilding efforts. They’re not alone – Carnival and Royal Caribbean are getting involved, too. As for those wondering why major cruise lines haven’t deployed ships to assist as yet, apparently, the ports are not large enough. On top of that, the seas simply aren’t safe enough as yet.
2 Trump: Any Gun Legislation Must Be Bipartisan
President Trump says any legislation on curbing gun violence must be bipartisan. After a numbr of deadly mass shootings this summer, Trump insists that he wants to "do what's right." Speaking at the White House, Trump said he believes the National Rifle Association (NRA) wants to do what's right as well – and repeated his argument that many gun control proposals would not have prevented some of the shooting massacres of recent years. He also said mental illness must be addressed. Trump was pressed about Wal-Mart's decision to end the sale of some kinds of ammunition at its stores. He said Walmart probably feels that they did the right thing. Speaking of the NRA? San Francisco has declared the NRA is a "domestic terrorist organization," with supervisors are encouraging other cities and states to do the same. Officials called out the NRA for “inciting acts of violence” and “spreading propaganda.” Though the move is just a declaration, San Francisco leaders are urged to limit the hiring of contractors or vendors who have ties with the NRA. Meanwhile, a rep for the gun organization says the declaration is merely a stunt to distract from the city's real problems of homelessness and increasing crime.
3 Officials Recover Nearly All Bodies From CA Boat Blaze
Dive teams have now pulled all but one of the bodies out of the water after a massive boat fire off the Southern California Coast this holiday weekend. The Cost Guard says 33 bodies have been recovered and one person remains missing out of the 39 people on board, with five crew members making an escape. The cause of the deadly fire remains unclear, but investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are on scene near Santa Barbara and are trying to figure out what happened and why. As we told you before, the 75-foot vessel Conception was chartered for three days by a commercial dive group based in Santa Cruz and it went up flames early Monday morning. According to reports, federal investigators grilled the captain, surviving crew members and the owner of the of the Conception yesterday. And while no details have been given, word is that everyone – with the exception of one crewmember (who couldn’t be tested because of his injuries) – has been negative for alcohol so far – with toxicology screens pending.