U.S. to buy aging Swiss fighter jets
The U.S. is expected to buy 22 aging fighter jets from Switzerland, a country that's struggling to modernize its own air force.
U.S. Navy representatives and the Swiss defense procurement agency, known as Armasuisse, discussed the deal in July, an agency spokesman said by email Sunday. The contract is expected to be signed once U.S. lawmakers approve the fiscal 2020 defense budget, he said.
President Donald Trump is seeking $718 billion in Pentagon funding for 2020, including $39.7 million for the F-5s, an aircraft first delivered to Switzerland in 1978. Nowadays, the U.S. uses the F-5 to simulate enemy planes in aerial combat training.
Switzerland has been trying to buy new warplanes for years. Voters in 2014 rejected a $3.2 billion order for Saab AB Gripen fighter jets. Switzerland now plans to spend about $6.1 billion on new fighter jets, according to SonntagsZeitung newspaper and previous Swiss media reports.
"If the Americans want to take over the scrap iron, they should do it," Beat Flach, a Green Liberal lawmaker, told SonntagsZeitung, which reported on the planned sale on Sunday. "It's better than having the Tigers rot in a parking lot."
More snow menaces Kansas, Missouri
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- A major winter storm moving across the region is expected to drop roughly 6 inches of snow on parts of Kansas and Missouri, and the storm is already causing travel problems.
The Kansas Highway Patrol says a section of westbound Interstate 70 near Manhattan closed Sunday morning after a crash involving three semitrailer trucks and two other vehicles blocked the road.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for much of eastern Kansas, Missouri and part of Illinois on Sunday.
In Kansas City, Mo., more than 40 traffic collisions were reported by 10 a.m. Sunday, the fire department said.
Police in O'Fallon, Mo., said a section of westbound Interstate 70 was likely to be closed for several hours Sunday after several crashes in the area.
Business began picking up early at the America's Best Value Inn in Lake St. Louis, manager Kay Thompson said Sunday morning. From the hotel's second floor, Thompson said she could see the aftermath of a crash on I-70 where a semitrailer truck hit a pickup.
"People who were actually in accidents have been calling me for a room. It's pretty bad," Thompson said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
2 teens held in Georgia mall shooting
ATLANTA -- Two teenagers were arrested in connection with a shooting that wounded one man in a busy suburban Atlanta mall food court at the height of Christmas shopping season, police said Sunday.
The Cobb County Police Department said surveillance footage and interviews helped identify the suspects as 18-year-old Zaire Dhanoolal and 19-year-old Joweer Ponce, both from Marietta. Dhanoolal was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, while Ponce was charged with reckless conduct and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, according to the law enforcement statement.
Both suspects were being held at the Cobb County jail, and county police said they were still investigating the mall shooting.
The shooting happened Saturday around 1 p.m. and sent shoppers scrambling at the sound of gunfire that police said began with a verbal dispute.
Officials said 18-year-old Ethan Green was shot in the neck and shoulder area and was taken to the hospital for treatment of what they described as "non-life threatening injuries." The Cobb County Police Department said 21-year-old Anthony Ezell wasn't injured during the shooting, but was considered a victim of aggravated assault because a weapon was pointed at him before Green was shot.
Police said in statements that the shooting was "an isolated incident," calling it a dispute between people who knew each other.
Houston mayor elected to second term
HOUSTON -- Houston's incumbent mayor won a second term on Saturday night, holding off a millionaire trial lawyer whose previous support of President Donald Trump had become one of the main campaign issues.
Mayor Sylvester Turner defeated Tony Buzbee during Saturday's runoff election. Unofficial results released by the Harris County Clerk's Office on Sunday morning show Turner capturing just over 56% of the vote. More than 200,000 votes were cast.
In seeking a second term, Turner touted guiding Houston through the devastating floods of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and reducing the city's huge pension debt as some of his accomplishments.
It was the second mayoral runoff won by Turner, who was a longtime Texas Democratic legislator before taking the reins of Houston, the nation's fourth largest city and one of the most racially and ethnically diverse in the country.
In 2015, Turner narrowly beat his runoff opponent by about 2 percentage points.
Turner and Buzbee ended up in the runoff as neither candidate got more than 50% of the vote during the Nov. 5 election, which featured 12 mayoral candidates.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 12/16/2019