3 Things To Know Today

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Photo: Science Photo Library RF

1 Secretary Of Defense Lloyd Austin Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer

At least part of the mystery surrounding the top person at the Pentagon has been revealed. A statement issued by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s doctors through the Pentagon yesterday said that Austin was hospitalized to treat an infection related to an earlier surgery for prostate cancer. The disclosure was apparently news to most in Washington, with National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby saying during yesterday’s White House press briefing that no one at the White House knew that Austin had been diagnosed with prostate cancer until yesterday, and Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the press secretary for the Department of Defense, confirmed that Austin was still in the hospital as of yesterday. That means that Secretary Austin has spent all of 2024 at Walter Reed. What’s prompted the controversy around the situation is that the Pentagon didn’t tell the White House, lawmakers, or even Austin’s second-in-command that he was hospitalized until several days later. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio said yesterday “It’s a little crazy that we effectively lost track of arguably the second most important person in the government.” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that “this lack of disclosure must never happen again.”

2 NTSB Chair Says Fittings On Alaska Airlines Door Plug Fractured

The investigation into what happened with the Alaska Airlines plane that lost a door plug shortly after takeoff could be about to expand. The Boeing 737-9 Max plane that lost the door plug over Portland has led to the grounding of all of that model plane for safety inspections, and some of those inspections have already found loose bolts on the door plugs on other planes. With the missing door being found in a schoolteacher’s back yard, the National Transportation Safety Board was able to determine that the fittings at the top of the door plug fractured…possibly. According to Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, “We don’t know if the bolts were loose. We don’t know if the bolts were in there fractured or possibly the bolts weren’t there at all.” During yesterday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters said the fact that the FAA had grounded all of the planes “is important, right? That is taking the safety of Americans first.” She went on to say that the White House doesn’t know yet if this is an issue with Boeing or the FAA, saying that an investigation was needed before deciding that. The grounding of the 171 planes is expected to lead to continued flight cancellations for the rest of the week. Both United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, the two American airlines that use the plane, are offering anyone whose flight is canceled a full refund.

3 At Least Four Dead After Severe Weather, With More On The Way

Powerful storms that impacted the Pacific Northwest, the Plains, the Gulf Coast, and the mid-Atlantic yesterday left four people dead. One woman died yesterday morning when an apparent tornado his southern Houston County, Alabama. Falling trees claimed the lives of two people in Alabama and Georgia, and one person died when a possible tornado struck a mobile home park in North Carolina. At least 150 flights that would have used airports in Chicago were canceled yesterday due to severe winter weather, and Seattle declared a rare blizzard warning. In Iowa, multiple tractor-trailers and other vehicles piled up on I-80 in the icy conditions, and more than a foot of snow landed on an area from southeastern Colorado to Michigan’s upper peninsula. More severe weather problems are expected as the storms continue to move eastward across the country, with arctic temperatures forecast to make things worse for a lot of the country at the start of next week.


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