Cabinet members stand by use of flights

WASHINGTON — Two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members do not plan to reimburse the government for charter flights costing tens of thousands of dollars.

Representatives of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt say the trips were preapproved by ethics officials and were part of their official duties.

Still, inspectors general for the two agencies have opened inquiries into the taxpayer-funded travel.

Zinke said he’s taken three charter flights, including a $12,375 late-night trip from Las Vegas to his home state of Montana in June. Zinke said no commercial flight was available when he planned to fly for a speech to Western governors.

Documents show Pruitt and his staff chartered a private plane for an Aug. 4 trip from Denver to Durango, Colorado, to visit the Gold King Mine, site of a spill last year. The administrator also took three flights on governmentowned planes to New York and North Dakota and a roundtrip between airports in Pruitt’s native Oklahoma.

Letters released by EPA show the flights cost a total of $58,000. have bought surgical masks and other medical supplies in large quantities.

At least 114 people have been infected with plague, the World Health Organization said Sunday.

“Bubonic plague is spread by infected rats via flea bite, pneumonic by person-to-person transmission. The current outbreak includes both forms of plague,” the agency said.

In the IS video, circulated on social media, one of the prisoners identifies himself and says he and his colleague, who appears badly beaten, were captured near al-Shula during an IS counteroffensive. The speaker does not say when they were captured.

Russia’s Defense Ministry says no Russian servicemen have been captured in Syria. will go to attorneys at the Goodman & Hurwitz firm.

Shelly Hilliard, 19, quickly agreed to help police when she was caught with marijuana at a suburban Detroit motel in 2011. Her supplier was arrested within hours, but she was killed a few days later — her body burned and dismembered.

During the arrest, Officer Chad Wolowiec, a member of a regional drug unit, gave enough details to the drug dealer’s companion to out Hilliard.