Storm dumps snow, closes mountain routes in California
COLFAX, Calif. — A major weekend storm caused whiteout conditions and closed key highways amid blowing snow in mountains of Northern California and Nevada, with forecasters warning that travel in the Sierra Nevada could be difficult for several days.
Authorities near Reno, Nevada, reported a 20-car pileup on Interstate 395 where drivers described whiteout conditions. And a 70-mile stretch of Interstate 80 was shut until at least Monday from Colfax, California to the Nevada state line.
The California Department of Transportation also closed other mountain routes while warning of poor visibility and slippery conditions for drivers.
“Expect major travel delays on all roads,” the National Weather Service office in Reno said on Twitter. “Today is the type of day to just stay home if you can. More snow is on the way too!”
The weather service issued a winter storm warning for greater Lake Tahoe until 1 a.m. Tuesday because of possible “widespread whiteout conditions” and wind gusts that could top 45 mph.
Turbulent weather stretched from Southern California to Seattle, where several of inches of snow fell Sunday.
Rock slides caused by heavy rain closed more than 40 miles of coastal Highway 1 in the Big Sur region south of the San Francisco Bay Area. There was no estimate for the reopening of the scenic stretch that is frequently shut after wet weather.
The latest in a series of blustery storms hit Southern
California with heavy rain and wind that flooded streets and knocked down power lines late Saturday.
Powerful gusts toppled trees, damaged carports and blew a track-and-field shed from a Goleta high school into a front yard two blocks away, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
No injuries were reported.
Mich. kidnapping plot: Defense attorneys want to dismiss the indictment against five men accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because of what they described as “egregious overreaching” by federal agents and informants, according to a court filing.
In the 20-page motion filed Saturday night, defense attorneys allege FBI agents and federal prosecutors invented a conspiracy and entrapped people who could face up to life in prison. They’re asking U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker to dismiss the conspiracy charge.
The request comes after developments and claims about the government’s team, including the conviction of Richard Trask, an FBI special agent who was arrested on a domestic violence charge and later fired and convicted of a misdemeanor.
Five people are charged with kidnapping conspiracy and face a trial March 8 in Grand Rapids. They have pleaded not guilty and claim to be victims of entrapment.
Brazilian dams break: Two dams broke Sunday in northeastern Brazil, threatening worse flooding in a rain-drenched region that has already seen thousands forced to flee their homes.
The city governments of Jussiape and Itambe posted warnings on social media urging people to seek safety.
The Bahia state government’s press office said heavy rains have caused floods that have killed 18 people and affected 72 cities since early November, forcing more than 4,000 from their homes and complicating access to some communities.
Bodies wash ashore: The bodies of 27 Europe-bound migrants, including a baby and two women, have washed ashore in western Libya, the country’s Red Crescent said.
The bodies were found late Saturday in two locations in the coastal town of Khoms, about 75 miles east of the capital city of Tripoli, the Red Crescent’s branch there said.
Three other migrants were rescued, and search efforts were underway for others, it said.
The dead migrants likely
drowned in recent shipwrecks off Libya, authorities said.
Around 1,500 migrants have drowned in boat mishaps and shipwrecks on the route across the central Mediterranean this year, according to the U.N. migration agency..
Taliban dissolutions: The Taliban dissolved Afghanistan’s two election commissions as well as two state ministries, an official said Sunday.
Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban-run government, called them “unnecessary institutes for the current situation in Afghanistan.”
Both elections commissions were mandated to administer and supervise all types of elections in the country, including presidential, parliamentary and provincial council elections.
Karimi said the Taliban also dissolved the Ministry for Peace and the Ministry
of Parliamentarian Affairs.
He said they were unnecessary in the government’s current structure.
A factory boiler exploded in eastern India on Sunday, killing at least six workers and injuring six others, police said.
Rescuers were looking for any workers who may be trapped in the rubble of the factory that produced snack foods in an industrial area 60 miles north of Patna, the Bihar state capital.
The cause of the blast in Muzaffarpur was being investigated, said police officer Ram Naresh Paswan. He said the death toll was likely to rise as four of the injured were critical.
India factory explosion:
Old church’s final service: A Pennsylvania church with a 221-year history held its final service and is scheduled to close at the end of the year because of declining membership and attendance.
The First Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, which is nearly as old as the borough itself, held the final scheduled service Christmas Eve.
The church was established in 1800 by the same men who founded Bellefonte in 1795 at a time when there were only 16 states and counted among its members two former Pennsylvania governors. The church met at the courthouse for almost two decades and then in a stone edifice; the current structure was built shortly after the Civil War.
It was estimated the church had about 40 members before the pandemic, now down to 25.
The 15,000-square-foot church is scheduled to close Dec. 31; the future of the building hasn’t been determined. Video of the final service posted on Facebook included references to “the pain of saying goodbye to one another” but a reminder that “challenges aren’t anything new to humanity.”