NEWS OF THE DAY
Intoxicated baggage handler: A baggage handler working on an American Airlines flight at Kansas City International Airport while allegedly drunk Saturday fell asleep in the forward cargo hold of a Boeing 737-800 and flew to Chicago. The employee was discovered when the aircraft arrived at the gate in Chicago, according to a statement from American Airlines. The baggage handler was not injured during the hour-long flight. The cargo hold is heated and pressurized, according to American Airlines. He was sent back to Kansas City, and no charges were filed, according to WGN9.
Medicaid expansion: About 400,000 newly eligible low-income Virginia adults can start enrolling in Medicaid, a major achievement for the state’s Democratic governor. Medicaid expansion enrollment starts Thursday in Virginia for coverage that will start at the beginning of 2019. Expanding Medicaid was among the biggest legislative priorities for Gov. Ralph Northam. State lawmakers voted to expand Medicaid earlier this year, joining a majority of other states that have already expanded publicly funded health care to low-income adults. Medicaid expansion is central to former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
Severe weather: At least two people were dead after powerful storms blew through the Gulf Coast region Thursday, jangling the nerves of people whose lives were ripped apart by Hurricane Michael less than a month ago. Storms covered a wide area of the country reaching from beaches to the Great Lakes, but howling wind and driving rain threw a particular scare into the Florida Panhandle, which is still reeling from Michael. The Storm Prediction Center reported downed trees and utility lines from eastern Texas to northwest Alabama. The Southeastern storms left nearly 110,000 homes and businesses without electricity at the height, and both weather-related deaths occurred in wrecks. Florence damage: The state of North Carolina now estimates that Hurricane Florence did nearly $17 billion in damage to homes, businesses, farms and governments in the state, and that as much as half of that may not be covered by private insurance or government aid. The state had initially estimated $13 billion in damages as a result of the storm, which made landfall the morning of Sept. 14 and dumped record amounts of rain during a six-day slog across the state. Tennessee execution: A Tennessee inmate’s final words were “Let’s rock” moments before he became the first man executed in the electric chair in that state since 2007, put to death for the killings of two men during a drug deal-turned-robbery decades ago. Edmund Zagorski, 63, was pronounced dead at 7:26 p.m. Thursday at a Nashville maximum-security prison, officials said. Asked if he had any last words in the death chamber, the inmate said, “Let’s rock.”