NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Biden PAC: Former Vice President Joe Biden is planning to create a political action committee, the most concrete sign yet that he intends to remain active in the Democratic Party and is considering a presidential bid in 2020. The American Possibilities PAC, which Biden unveiled Thursday, offers the former vice president a platform he can use to nurture relationships with donors, travel on behalf of the party and contribute to candidates in the two governor’s races in November and in next year’s midterm elections.
2 Trump hotel arrest: A physician and Navy veteran arrested at the Trump International Hotel after police found an assault-style rifle in his car was expected to make an initial court appearance Thursday. Bryan Moles,43, of Edinboro, Pa., was arrested Wednesday on weapons charges. The Secret Service interviewed Moles and came away satisfied he was no threat to the president or anyone else they protect. Court documents say Moles told authorities he suffered from PTSD, is a recovering alcoholic and that he’d drained his bank account before he Pennsylvania.
3 Plant explosion: A Wisconsin corn mill that exploded late Wednesday was reprimanded by federal safety inspectors six years ago for not taking precautions against dust explosions, which are a major hazard in handling grain, records show. The blast at the Didion Milling Plant in Cambria, a rural village about 45 miles northeast of Madison, left at least two people dead. Emergency workers were still searching for an employee on Thursday. Nearly a dozen other employees were taken to area hospitals.
4 Naloxone for dogs: Police dogs simply follow their noses to sniff out narcotics. But inhaling powerful opioids can be deadly, so officers have a new tool to protect their four-legged partners: naloxone, a drug that has already been used for years to reverse overdoses in humans. Law enforcement officers in Massachusetts have started carrying naloxone on drug raids, when K-9s are often sent into houses or cars to find narcotics.
5 “Covfefe” gains popularity: The popular mobile word game Words With Friends has added one of the Internet’s most popular typos in recent days — “covfefe.” The mysterious term that President Trump tweeted on Wednesday has spread like wildfire on social media and the Scrabble-like game has jumped aboard, defining the word as “the amount and quality of reporting when autocorrect fails you at 3 a.m.”
6 Garcia’s guitar: A guitar that Jerry Garcia played everywhere from San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom to Egypt’s Great Pyramids fetched more than $1.9 million at an auction Wednesday night. The Grateful Dead frontman’s guitar — named Wolf — was sold at the Brooklyn Bowl, a bowling alley, restaurant and music venue. The proceeds are earmarked for Alabama’s Southern Poverty Law Center. Garcia died in 1995. Chronicle News Services