KANSAS WATER SLIDE DEATH CASE EXPANDS
MO.» Two maintenance KANSAS CITY, workers have been charged with obstruction of law enforcement in the Schlitterbahn case, according to indictments unsealed Wednesday by a Wyandotte County, Kan., judge.
David Hughes and John Zalsman each made a first appearance in Wyandotte County court Wednesday, entering not-guilty pleas during a brief court hearing.
Assistant Kansas Attorney General Adam Zentner described the nature of the offense as a “very isolated incident” and that the evidence in their matter involved “substantially reduced evidence” compared with the five defendants previously brought up on criminal charges in relation to the 2016 death of a 10-year-old boy on the Verruckt water slide.
More evacuations advised as Hawaii lava approaches.
Fastmoving lava is advancing to another part of a rural Big Island district where the Kilauea volcano is erupting, officials said Wednesday in advising those residents to evacuate.
Lava continues to advance toward subdivisions in the Puna district. Those in Kapoho Beach Lots, Vacationland and Waa Waa were being advised to evacuate, the Hawaii County Civil Defense agency said.
Lava crossed Hawaii 132, which connects the commercial center with smaller towns and farms in the area, authorities said Tuesday.
Giuliani says he has counseled Trump against firing Sessions.
» President Donald WASHINGTON
Trump’s lawyer has repeatedly counseled him not to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions despite the president’s ongoing anger at the attorney general’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe.
Rudy Giuliani told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Trump has asked him multiple times, before and after the former New York City mayor joined the president’s legal team last month, about whether Sessions should have been fired.
“I don’t think the president should do it, and I’ve told him so,” said Giuliani.
Giuliani said Trump consulted him last summer during the height of his rage about Sessions’ recusal.
More recently, he said, Trump has not actively considered firing Sessions but has wondered if he made the right decision in not doing so previously.
Top North Korean official lands in U.S. for talks with Pompeo.
» A senior North Korean NEW YORK official arrived in New York on Wednesday in the highestlevel official visit to the United States in 18 years, as President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un sought to salvage prospects for a high-stakes nuclear summit.
Kim Yong Chol, the former military intelligence chief and one of the North Korean leader’s closest aides, landed mid-afternoon on an Air China flight from Beijing. Associated Press journalists saw the plane taxi down the tarmac before the North’s delegation disembarked at JFK International Airport.
During his unusual visit, Kim Yong Chol was to have dinner Wednesday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who traveled from Washington to see him. The two planned a “day full of meetings” Thursday, the White House said. Their talks will be aimed at determining whether a meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un, originally scheduled for June 12 but later canceled by Trump, can be restored, U.S. officials have said.
Yellowstone River to get new trails under oil spill deal.
MONT.» New trails, fishing BILLINGS, sites and other recreational features will be built along Montana’s Yellowstone River as compensation for damage from an Exxon Mobil Corp. pipeline spill, under a plan approved Wednesday by the governor.
The 63,000-gallon oil spill in 2011 near Laurel damaged thousands of acres along an 85-mile stretch of the famous waterway and required a months-long cleanup. — Denver Post wire services