New safety rules set training standards for train dispatchers and signal repairmen

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — New federal certification rules finalized Monday for train dispatchers and signal repairmen will set minimum standards to counteract the investor pressure on railroads to continually cut costs while making sure those employees have the skills they need to operate all the high-tech systems on today’s trains.

The new Federal Railroad Administration rules are the latest steps in the agency’s broad efforts to improve rail safety since the disastrous East Palestine derailment in Ohio last year although these rules were in the works years before that train crash.

FRA Administrator Amit Bose said in an interview with The Associated Press that both these crafts of workers are responsible for some of the advanced technology railroads rely on like the assortment of trackside detectors that help spot mechanical problems before they can cause derailments, so it made sense to set certification standards for them.

“Here’s the bottom line for me, we want to make sure that qualified workers are doing the jobs that they are specialists in to do,” Bose said. And even though technology can help railroads improve safety, he said the FRA wants to make sure that it supplements but doesn’t replace existing efforts like visual inspections.

Bose said dispatchers play a key role in operating the automatic braking system known as Positive Train Control that Congress required the railroads to install. Plus, modern dispatching centers are filled with banks of massive monitors at each desk that dispatchers use to keep track of the trains moving across their territories.

Bose said the railroads are concerned about safety, but too often they only do the minimum required as they try to control costs to boost profits.

“The industry has, learned a lot, since East Palestine and has implemented and redoubled, its efforts on safety,” Bose said. “We have to remain vigilant on safety 24 hours, seven days a week. I’m encouraged by some of the efforts, from the railroad companies, but again, there’s always more, to do.”

But the changes railroads announced after that Ohio derailment focused attention nationwide on railroad safety haven’t made a major difference in safety statistics. And larger reforms have stalled in Congress because Republicans want to wait until after the National Transportation Safety Board issues its final report on the derailment next month before considering changes.

The Association of American Railroads trade group said in a statement that the new dispatcher and signalmen rules aren’t likely to make a significant improvement in safety because the railroads already train their employees.

“Ensuring all employees are well-trained and qualified to safely execute their duties is essential,” AAR spokeswoman Jessica Kahanek said. “This is why railroads invest heavily to ensure our people have the necessary skills and knowledge to maintain safe operations and successfully perform their work.”

But the American Train Dispatchers Association union praised the new rule because it should prevent the common practices of forcing dispatchers to work assignments they aren’t adequately trained for and keep managers from working in a dispatcher role if they’re not properly certified. And both the union and federal regulators will get a chance to review railroads’ certification plans before they take effect.

Judge blocks Biden administration from enforcing new gun sales background check rule in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a new rule in Texas that would require firearms dealers to run background checks on buyers at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, came before the rule had been set to take effect Monday. The order also prevents the federal government from enforcing the rule against several gun-rights groups, including Gun Owners of America. It does not apply to Louisiana, Mississippi and Utah, which were also part of the lawsuit.

“Plaintiffs understandably fear that these presumptions will trigger civil or criminal penalties for conduct deemed lawful just yesterday,” Kacsmaryk said in his ruling.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declined to comment. The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twenty-six Republican attorneys general filed lawsuits in federal court in Arkansas, Florida and Texas aiming to block enforcement of the rule earlier this month. The plaintiffs argued that the rule violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, doesn’t have the authority to implement it.

The new requirement is the Biden administration’s latest effort to curtail gun violence and aims to close a loophole that has allowed unlicensed dealers to sell tens of thousands of guns every year without checking that the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.

Kacsmaryk wrote that the rule sets presumptions about when a person intends to make a profit and whether a seller is “engaged in the business.” He said this is “highly problematic” for multiple reasons, including that it forces the firearm seller to prove innocence rather than the government to prove guilt.

“This ruling is a compelling rebuke of their tyrannical and unconstitutional actions that purposely misinterpreted federal law to ensure their preferred policy outcome,” Gun Owners of America senior vice president Erich Pratt said in a statement Monday.

Biden administration officials proposed the rule in August and it garnered more than 380,000 public comments. It follows the nation’s most sweeping gun violence prevention bill in decades, which Biden signed in 2022 after lawmakers reached a bipartisan agreement in the wake of the Uvalde Elementary School shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers two years ago this week.

The rule implements a change in the 2022 law that expanded the definition of those who are “engaged in the business” of selling firearms, are required to become licensed by the ATF, and therefore must run background checks.

“This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons,” Biden said in a statement last month. “And my administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”

Kacsmaryk is the sole district court judge in Amarillo — a city in the Texas panhandle — ensuring that all cases filed there land in front of him. Since taking the bench, he has ruled against the Biden administration on several other issues, including immigration and LGBTQ protections.

NRA names new leadership to replace former CEO found liable for wrongly spending millions

DALLAS (AP) — The National Rifle Association, which has had its image sullied by former leader Wayne LaPierre’s spending excesses, elected Doug Hamlin as executive vice president and CEO on Monday.

“Our association is at a decisive moment in our history, and the future of America and constitutional freedoms depends on the success of the NRA,” said Hamlin, who recently served as executive director of the NRA’s publications. Hamlin said in a statement he looked forward to working with staff to “promote political and public policies that are in the best interest of our members and all gun owners.”

The board of directors for the gun rights lobbying group elected former Republican Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia as its new president.

“I have been a fighter my whole life and I commit to boldly fight for our Second Amendment rights on behalf of the millions of NRA members,” Barr said in a statement. “We need to grow our ranks, especially in this election year, and I pledge to focus my attention on doing just that.”

Former President Donald Trump addressed the group on Saturday and received the organization’s endorsement in this year’s presidential election. About 72,000 people attended the 153rd Annual Meetings & Exhibits, the association said.

LaPierre was found liable in February at a civil trial in New York of wrongly using millions of dollars of the organization’s money to pay for an extravagant lifestyle that included exotic getaways and trips on private planes and superyachts. LaPierre resigned as executive vice president and CEO on the eve of the trial.

The jury ordered LaPierre to repay almost $4.4 million to the NRA, while the organization’s retired finance chief, Wilson Phillips, owed $2 million. The lobbying group failed to properly manage its assets, omitted or misrepresented information in its tax filings and violated whistleblower protections under New York law, jurors found.

After reporting a $36 million deficit in 2018 fueled largely by misspending, the NRA cut back on longstanding programs that had been core to its mission, including training and education, recreational shooting, and law enforcement initiatives.

LaPierre’s trial cast a spotlight on the leadership, culture and finances of the over 150-year-old organization that has become a powerful influence on federal law and presidential elections.

John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit which advocates for stricter gun control, in a statement called Hamlin “a longtime insider,” adding that “the NRA’s chaotic infighting and financial doom spiral shows no signs of stopping.”

Fatal shooting at this year’s ‘Jeep Week’ event on Texas Gulf Coast

CRYSTAL BEACH (AP) — A popular event drew tens of thousands of visitors over the weekend to Texas Gulf Coast beaches, where a fatal shooting erupted and nearly 300 people were arrested, authorities said Monday.

Three separate shootings were reported Saturday on the Bolivar Peninsula during the annual “Jeep Week” event, including one that left one person dead and two others injured, according to Galveston County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Ray Nolen.

Here are some things to know about the event this year.
WHAT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY?

An estimated 100,000 people and more than 30,000 vehicles crammed into a six-mile stretch of Crystal Beach on Saturday for the culmination of the Jeep Week event near Galveston, Nolen said.

Authorities had not identified any suspects in the most serious shooting on Saturday where one person was killed near Crystal Beach. Another shooting victim was airlifted to an area hospital and was in stable condition Monday, while a third was shot in the hand, Nolen said. Police arrested 295 people over the weekend on an assortment of charges, but mostly for disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and fighting.

Authorities were prepared with more than 170 officers on duty for the weekend, and they made a record-high number of arrests at the event, he said.

WHAT IS ‘JEEP WEEK’?

The annual event began more than a decade ago and drew mostly Jeep enthusiasts from Texas and Louisiana.

“It was a family-fun, friendly event, which we didn’t have any problems with,” Nolen said.

But in the last three or four years, the event ballooned in size and started attracting owners of motorcycles, utility-terrain vehicles, pickup trucks and a variety of vehicles for off-highway use.

In recent years, several Jeep clubs have pulled out of the event and distanced themselves from “Jeep Week.”

HOW ARE LOCALS REACTING?

What was once a popular tourist attraction that drew tens of thousands of patrons to local businesses has now become a headache for many who live in the area.

After more than 100 people were arrested in 2019, local residents started an online petition to end the event. The following year two people were shot.

This year, several businesses, including beach-side bars and restaurants and a local grocery store, shut down for the weekend. Traffic jams made it difficult for employees to get to and from work, the grocery store saw a sharp spike in shoplifting and restaurants reported dozens of people skipping out of paying their tabs, Nolen said.

Mike Gilbert, the owner of Latitude 29.2 Surf Shop on Crystal Beach, kept his shop open during the day and didn’t have any problems, although he acknowledged things got pretty rowdy Saturday night.

“I had no problems being open and no concerns,” Gilbert said. “I think it could have been better if families hadn’t been scared to come down here and be on the beach.”

Bridge connecting Galveston and Pelican Island reopened after barge collision

HOUSTON (AP) — A bridge near Galveston, Texas, that was damaged last week when a barge carrying fuel broke free from a tugboat has reopened to vehicle and pedestrian traffic after safety inspections deemed it safe, officials said.

The barge crashed into a pillar supporting the Pelican Island Causeway span on May 15. The impact caused the bridge to partially collapse and cut off the only road connecting Galveston to Pelican Island.

After a review of the bridge by the Galveston County Navigation District No. 1 and underwater inspectors with the Texas Department of Transportation, the structure was reopened late Saturday night. Officials have set weight limits for vehicles using the bridge.

Early estimates had indicated that up to 2,000 gallons (7,571 liters) of oil spilled into surrounding waters following the collision.

On Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard updated that figure, saying approximately 20,000 gallons (75,708 liters) of oil were spilled.

After the oil spill, authorities deployed a boom, or barrier, to contain the spill, forcing the temporary closure of about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) of the waterway.
Clean up efforts have ended around Pelican Island. But crews were still removing oil and washing shoreside rocks along Swan Lake, a coastal recess located several miles west of Pelican Island along the Texas Coast.

During the clean-up efforts, crews recovered three dead, oiled birds from around Swan Lake: two brown pelicans and a laughing gull.

Nine other birds that were alive but covered in oil were spotted around Swan Lake, but officials said they were not able to recover them.

“To further protect wildlife, acoustic cannons were placed to provide an audible distraction to shore birds,” the Coast Guard said.

After the barge collision, Texas A&M University at Galveston, which has a campus on Pelican Island, had closed its facility. Fewer than 200 people related to the school were on the island at the time.

The university said the campus resumed normal operations on Monday.

The Coast Guard said the tugboat had lost control of the 321-foot barge “due to a break in the coupling” that had connected the two vessels.

The affected area is miles from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which sees frequent barge traffic, and the Houston Ship Channel, a large shipping channel for ocean-going vessels.

The accident came weeks after a cargo ship crashed into a support column of the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, killing six construction workers.

America’s first Black astronaut candidate, finally goes to space 60 years later

VAN HORN (AP) — Ed Dwight, America’s first Black astronaut candidate, finally rocketed into space 60 years later, flying with Jeff Bezos’ rocket company on Sunday.

Dwight was an Air Force pilot when President John F. Kennedy championed him as a candidate for NASA’s early astronaut corps. But he wasn’t picked for the 1963 class.

Dwight, now 90, went through a few minutes of weightlessness with five other passengers aboard the Blue Origin capsule as it skimmed space on a roughly 10-minute flight. He called it “a life changing experience.”

“I thought I really didn’t need this in my life,” Dwight said shortly after exiting the capsule. ”But, now, I need it in my life …. I am ecstatic.”

The brief flight from West Texas made Dwight the new record-holder for oldest person in space — nearly two months older than “Star Trek” actor William Shatner was when he went up in 2021.

It was Blue Origin’s first crew launch in nearly two years. The company was grounded following a 2022 accident in which the booster came crashing down but the capsule full of experiments safely parachuted to the ground. Flights resumed last December, but with no one aboard. This was Blue Origin’s seventh time flying space tourists.

Dwight, a sculptor from Denver, was joined by four business entrepreneurs from the U.S. and France and a retired accountant. Their ticket prices were not disclosed; Dwight’s seat was sponsored in part by the nonprofit Space for Humanity.

Dwight was among the potential astronauts the Air Force recommended to NASA. But he wasn’t chosen for the 1963 class, which included eventual Gemini and Apollo astronauts, including Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. NASA didn’t select Black astronauts until 1978, and Guion Bluford became the first African American in space in 1983. Three years earlier, the Soviets launched the first Black astronaut, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, a Cuban of African descent.

After leaving the military in 1966, Dwight joined IBM and started a construction company before earning a master’s degree in sculpture in the late 1970s. He’s since dedicated himself to art. His sculptures focus on Black history and include memorials and monuments across the country. Several of his sculptures have flown into space.

Power restored to most hit by deadly Houston storm, full service expected by Wednesday

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston area residents affected by deadly storms last week received some good news as officials said power was restored Sunday to a majority of the hundreds of thousands who had been left in the dark and without air conditioning during hot and humid weather.

The widespread destruction of Thursday’s storms left at least seven dead and brought much of Houston to a standstill. Thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds tore through the city, reducing businesses and other structures to piles of debris, uprooting trees and shattering glass from downtown skyscrapers.

A tornado also touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress.

By Sunday evening, 88% of customers in the Houston area had their power restored, said Paul Lock, a spokesperson for CenterPoint Energy.

“We expect everyone to be back on by end of business Wednesday,” Lock said.

More than 240,000 homes and businesses in Texas remained without electricity Sunday evening, mostly in the Houston area. More than 1,780 customers remained without power in Louisiana, which also was hit by strong winds and a suspected tornado.

CenterPoint Energy said 2,000 employees and more than 5,000 contractors were working in the Houston area to restore power.

“We understand the higher temperatures we are experiencing across Houston and surrounding communities make getting the lights and air conditioning back on even more important,” Lynnae Wilson, CenterPoint’s senior vice president of electric business, said in a statement.

At one of five cooling centers for people still without power in their homes, residents took shelter from the heat at a community center in the Cloverleaf neighborhood and wondered when their power would come back. At least 15 community centers were set to serve as cooling centers in the Houston area on Monday.

Carolina Sierra and her 6-year-old son, Derek, enjoyed the air conditioning for a couple of hours Sunday. She said they have been without electricity since the storm hit Thursday, and their home has been stifling.

Derek passed the time coloring a picture of a dragon while his mother charged her cellphone and a portable lamp they planned to use Sunday night if the power was still not restored. Sierra said she gives her son multiple baths to try to keep him cool but he tosses and turns at night and struggles to sleep.

“We are desperate,” Sierra said. “We hardly sleep at night because of the heat.”

Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia stood outside the center Sunday, helping load water and ice onto vehicles while offering words of encouragement to residents still waiting for power to be restored. Nearly 500 vehicles stood in line at the center on Sunday to get water and ice.

“We are seeing a bit of the recovery come through,” Garcia said. “But we can’t see enough of it fast enough.”

Disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and loans from the Small Business Administration were on the way, said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the county where Houston is located. The federal assistance, which can help pay for temporary housing and repairs, will help residents affected by last week’s storms as well as by flooding from heavy rainfall in late April and early May in parts of Houston, Harris County and several counties north of Houston.

Mayor John Whitmire said a six-block area in downtown Houston would be closed Monday to allow crews to continue repairs after various high-rise buildings had their windows blown out.

Residents broke into cheers as lights and air conditioning kicked on at the eight-story Houston Heights Tower, a senior housing facility, Sunday morning. The nearly 200 residents had been living on emergency power since Thursday evening, with generators providing enough electricity to run just one of the building’s elevators and a handful of fans in the community room, leaving apartments in darkness.

Volunteers and city workers had been ensuring residents received a steady supply of water, food and essentials like toilet paper.

“It just goes to show you how people come together,” resident Joseph Torregrossa said, choking back tears.

The National Weather Service said in a post on the social platform X that residents should expect “sunny, hot and increasingly humid days” in the Houston area. Highs of about 90 degrees (32 Celsius) were expected this week, with heat indexes likely approaching 102 degrees (39 Celsius) by midweek.

With the temperature reaching 91 degrees (33 Celsius) Sunday afternoon, Lisa Reed sat in a folding chair outside her home in the Cloverleaf neighborhood because she was still without electricity. A volunteer crew of AFL-CIO apprentices who had reached out to Garcia’s precinct office had just cut up a large tree in her front yard that had come crashing down on two vehicles in her driveway and stacked the wood neatly in two large piles.

Reed said no home on her street, where branches and other debris were piled along the sidewalk, escaped damage from last week’s storms.

“It’s nothing I can do,” said Reed, a fifth grade teacher. “Take it all in stride. I’m a firm believer that God will work it all out.”

Houston area school districts canceled classes for more than 400,000 students Friday. The Houston Independent School District, the state’s largest, said 215 of its 274 campuses would be open Monday. Two other large school districts in the the Houston area, Cypress-Fairbanks and Spring Branch, planned to be closed.

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Associated Press reporter Mark Vancleave contributed to this report.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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