NEWS OF THE DAY
_1 “Dream” candidate: So which Democrat would President Trump most like to run against in 2020? He says it’s Joe Biden. Trump tells CBS News in an interview broadcast Thursday that “I dream about Biden.” Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama, considered running in 2016, but decided against it, citing the trauma of his son Beau’s death from cancer in 2015. Now Biden is seen as a possible 2020 Democratic contender. And unlike Obama, he’s shown no reluctance to criticize Trump directly. Trump returned some of the criticism in the interview, saying Obama took Biden “out of the garbage heap, and everybody was shocked that he did. I’d love to have it be Biden.”
_2 Steam pipe explosion: A nearly century-old steam pipe exploded beneath Fifth Avenue in Manhattan early Thursday, hurling chunks of asphalt, sending a geyser of white vapor 10 stories into the air and forcing the evacuation of 28 buildings. Five people suffered minor injuries from the 6:40 a.m. blast and officials warned people who may have gotten material on them to bag their clothes and shower immediately as a precaution because of the possibility of cancer-causing asbestos. Similar explosions over the year have drawn attention to the aging infrastructure beneath the streets of the nation’s largest city. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the pipe that blew was installed in 1932. More than 100 miles of steam pipe run beneath Manhattan, delivering vapor that powers heating and cooling systems in thousands of buildings, among other functions. The pipes share the crowded underground with subway and commuter rail tunnels, telecommunications and electric cable, and water pipes.
_3 Rosa Parks house: The house where civil rights icon Rosa Parks sought refuge after fleeing the South amid death threats is scheduled for auction next week with a minimum bid of $1 million. Auctioneer Guernsey’s plans to put the house up for auction July 26 in New York City, and has set a pre-auction estimate of $1 million to $3 million. The auction includes other items related to African American history and culture. Parks moved to Detroit in 1957, two years after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala. Her family says Parks stayed in her brother’s tiny wood-framed house with 17 other relatives.
4_ Endangered species: The Interior Department on Thursday proposed the most sweeping set of changes in decades to the Endangered Species Act, the law that brought the bald eagle and the Yellowstone grizzly bear back from the edge of extinction but which Republicans say is cumbersome and restricts economic development. Many of the proposed revisions have wide-reaching implications, including how the federal government will protect species from climate change. For example, the agency has proposed a new definition of how it decides whether a plant or animal is in danger of extinction. Environmental activists quickly criticized the new definition as too narrow, and expressed concern the changes will gut protections for the most threatened species.
Chronicle News Services