U.S. dead recovered at Afghan crash site
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. defense official says the United States has recovered the remains of two American service members killed in the crash of an Air Force plane in Afghanistan.
They were the only two people aboard the Air Force E-11A electronic surveillance aircraft when it went down Monday in Ghazni province, the official said, speaking Tuesday on the condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement of the recovery. The identities of the two have not been publicly announced, pending notification of their relatives.
The official said the American recovery team met no Taliban resistance in reaching the crash site and said there is no indication that the plane was downed by hostile action.
The Taliban hold much of Ghazni province. Monday's plane crash there is not expected to derail U.S.-Taliban peace talks if the crash investigation determines, as expected, that it was not the result of hostile action.
A journalist in the area, Tariq Ghazniwal, said Monday that he saw the burning aircraft. He said that he saw two bodies and that the front of the aircraft was badly burned but its body and tail were hardly damaged.
The crash site is about 6 miles from a U.S. military base, Ghazniwal said. Taliban militants were deployed to protect the crash site, he said.
Gifts help lynching survivor pay off debt
APEX, N.C. -- A North Carolina man who survived an attempted lynching in 1952 has been helped by hundreds of people to move to a new home because the old one stood in the way of a highway expansion.
Lynn Council, 87, plans to move into a new house in Apex after living in his current home for more than 60 years, news outlets reported.
Council was accused decades ago of a robbery he didn't commit. Two deputies hanged him from a tree to try to get him to confess. When he didn't, the deputies took him down.
Council later settled into a home just outside Apex. About 20 years ago, he took out a $20,000 federal home repair loan. One condition of the loan was that the full amount must be paid if he moved out or died.
The state recently bought Council's home so the Department of Transportation can expand N.C. 540. That meant he needed to pay back the $20,000 loan.
Garrett Raczek learned about Council's story and started an online fundraiser to help pay off the debt. By late Tuesday, the fundraiser had exceeded $23,000.
"I sure thank the Lord for the gifts. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Lord," Council said at a news conference Monday.
As for the attempted lynching, the Wake County sheriff's office and Apex police apologized last year. A bench in Council's honor also was placed outside the Police Department.
Tennessean put up for TVA utility board
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- President Donald Trump has nominated a former Tennessee House speaker to serve on the board of directors of the nation's largest public utility.
In a news release Tuesday, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., praised the nomination of Beth Harwell to the Tennessee Valley Authority board.
Harwell, a longtime Nashville Republican lawmaker, was elected speaker in 2011. She left the role and the Legislature in her unsuccessful 2018 bid for governor.
Since leaving office, Harwell has been hired as a visiting professor of political science at Middle Tennessee State University.
The Tennessee Valley Authority serves almost 10 million people in parts of seven Southeastern states.
Nominations to the utility's board are subject to U.S. Senate approval.
Protections proposed for crayfish species
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal agency has proposed designating habitat areas for two protected crayfish species in the coalfields of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
The proposal announced in a statement Monday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would protect 362 stream miles for the Big Sandy crayfish and 83 miles for the Guyandotte River crayfish.
The Guyandotte crayfish is listed as an endangered species and the Big Sandy crayfish as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the Guyandotte River crayfish has lost more than 90% of its range and is now found only in two streams in Wyoming County, W.Va.
The Big Sandy crayfish, whose range has been reduced by more than 60%, is found in the upper Big Sandy watershed in southern West Virginia, southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
The environmental group had alleged in a 2018 lawsuit that the species were being harmed by sediment from coal mining that disturbed their stream habitat. The lawsuit said the Fish and Wildlife Service wasn't acting fast enough in designating the habitat areas.
The designation would require the Fish and Wildlife Service to be consulted if projects are planned in those areas, and does not establish a formal conservation area or set aside lands and does not affect land ownership.
A Section on 01/29/2020