1 Winter Wallop Has 30 States Under Alerts
A major winter storm is bringing brutally cold temperatures to most of the US this week – just in time for Christmas travel. It's being called a "bomb cyclone," which is moving from the West to the East Coast. The irony? Today is the Winter Solstice. The storm's most serious effects will be a blizzard in the Midwest starting tomorrow. That region could be hit with six-to-12 inches of snow and "life-threatening" wind chills, while temperatures will feel as cold as 50- to 55-degrees BELOW zero. And of course, all that mess is moving east, where high winds are a serious concern. If there’s good news – with tens of millions of people under weather alerts – it’s that those planning to travel might get a little relief from most major airlines. Among them – United, American, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest – are offering to waive change fees and fare differences for those wanting to change flights so they can travel before or after the storm, within small rebooking windows.
2 NoCal Sees Strongest Quake In Three Years
Officials say at least two people have died and at least a dozen are injured following a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck near the coast of Northern California early yesterday morning. The region is one of the most active quake zones in the state. Why structural damage across the area is fairly significant in places, what’s impressing just about everyone? Why the death/injury toll wasn’t worse. After all, it’s the largest magnitude quake to hit the area in three years. Officials are point to the state's MyShake app, which sent out a warning to users just before the quake hit at around 2:30am PT. It gave them about a ten-second warning to get to safety. For perspective, the shaking was felt from the Oregon border down to the San Francisco Bay Area and as far away as Sacramento. Power was been knocked out to more than 70-thousand homes in a 30-mile stretch of Humboldt County. While most power has been restored, some still don’t have water. The California Highway Patrol has also closed a bridge in Ferndale due to possible structural damage.
3 House Ways And Means Committee Votes To Make Trump Taxes Public
The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee has approved the release of materials relating to the tax returns of former President Trump to the House of Representatives. Not surprisingly, the vote was along party lines. This clears the way for the materials to be made public – not that anyone is clear when they’ll be seen. But don’t get too excited – the personal information will be redacted from the docs. The release is, however, expected to include six years of Trump's tax returns, along with the tax returns of eight affiliated businesses and audit notes. To review, Mr. Trump was the first president in decades to not publicly share his returns upon taking office.