Fire at Texas plant kills worker, hurts 2
HOUSTON -- A tank holding a flammable chemical caught fire at a Texas plant Tuesday, killing one worker, critically injuring two others and sending panicked employees fleeing over a fence to safety.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed the fatality in a tweet and said the two injured had been taken by helicopter to a hospital. The two were in critical condition, said Rachel Moreno, spokesman for the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office.
The fire sent a large black plume of smoke into the air. Authorities shut down a roadway near the KMCO chemical plant in Crosby, about 25 miles northeast of Houston, Gonzalez said. And, residents within a 1-mile radius of the plant were ordered to stay indoors or shelter in place.
The fire broke out about two weeks after a March 17 blaze at a petrochemical storage facility in Deer Park, about 20 miles south of Crosby.
Gonzalez said a transfer line at the KMCO plant ignited in the area of a tank of isobutylene -- a flammable colorless gas used in the production of high octane gasoline -- which then caught on fire.
The fire spread to a warehouse where dry chemicals are stored. Officials were working with KMCO to get a list of what chemicals were in the warehouse, Moreno said.
Chinese woman arrested at Trump resort
PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Secret Service agents arrested a woman at President Donald Trump's Florida resort last weekend after she was found carrying two Chinese passports and a thumb drive with malicious software on it, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said the woman, Yujing Zhang, 32, first told security officials at Mar-a-Lago that she was there to go to the swimming pool, and because of an apparent language barrier, employees at the club thought she was a relative of a club member.
Once inside the grounds, Zhang is accused of telling a receptionist that she was there for a United Nations event scheduled for later in the day about Chinese-American relations. No such event was on the schedule, so the receptionist called the Secret Service, according to court papers.
After Zhang was stopped and questioned, a search of her belongings turned up four cellphones, a laptop, a hard drive, and a thumb drive that contained "malicious malware," according to the criminal complaint. It said she told Secret Service agents that a Chinese friend instructed her to travel from Shanghai to the president's Florida resort and make contact with a member of Trump's family.
Recognizing that her story had changed several times, agents took Zhang into custody after they said she became "verbally aggressive."
Zhang is charged with making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer and entering a restricted area.
N.D. victims ID'd; no suspect named
MANDAN, N.D. -- Police on Tuesday identified the owner of a North Dakota property management business and three employees as the people whose bodies were found there a day earlier, and said authorities don't yet know who killed them.
Police Chief Jason Ziegler released the names of the four victims, but offered few additional details. Authorities found the bodies Monday morning at RJR Maintenance and Management in Mandan, just across the Missouri River from the state capital, Bismarck.
Ziegler identified the dead as owner Robert Fakler, 52; and employees Adam Fuehrer, 42, Lois Cobb, 45, and William Cobb, 50.
Ziegler did not say how the victims were killed. He said police were awaiting autopsy results and that authorities did not recover a weapon. He also would not say whether police have identified a potential motive. Yet he remained adamant that authorities do not believe the public is at risk, "based upon what we know at the crime scene."
Suspect in killing of rapper arrested
LOS ANGELES -- Police on Tuesday arrested the man suspected of fatally shooting rapper Nipsey Hussle, authorities said.
Eric Holder, 29, had been on the run for two days before he was captured in Bellflower, about 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles where Hussle was gunned down outside his clothing store.
Hussle and Holder knew each other, and the two had some kind of personal dispute in the hours before the shooting, Police Chief Michel Moore said.
It was not immediately clear how authorities located the suspect. He was detained first by sheriff's deputies until Los Angeles police arrived and confirmed that he was wanted in Hussle's slaying, authorities said.
The two men had several arguments on Sunday, and Holder returned to the store with a handgun and opened fire on Hussle, 33, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom, and two other men, who survived the shooting, police said.
The chief did not reveal how the two men were acquainted nor offer any details about their dispute.
A Section on 04/03/2019