Nation & World Glance
PHOENIX — Arizona researchers say new maps sorting claims for unemployment benefits by zip code statewide indicate Tempe was hit harder than any other city in the state by economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Maricopa Association of Governments said Thursday the 85281 zip code in Tempe had over 6,600 unemployment claims between March 14 and May 14, the most of any zip code in the state.
MAG said the adjacent 85282 zip code had just over 5,200 claims, helping make Tempe the Arizona city hit hardest.
Numerous businesses, schools and other employers closed or scaled back their operations due to stay-at-home orders and other preventative measures implemented to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The researchers said the zip codes found to have the most claims were located as expected in the Phoenix and Tucson metros and in cities around communities such as Flagstaff, Yuma, Prescott and Kingman.
“However, there are no areas in the state that have escaped being hit by job loss,” MAG said in a statement.
In the Phoenix area, hard-hit areas besides Tempe included east Phoenix, south Scottsdale and south Chandler, MAG said.
FBI director orders internal review of Flynn investigation
WASHINGTON — FBI Director Christopher Wray has ordered an internal review into possible misconduct in the investigation of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, the bureau said Friday.
The after-action review will examine whether any current employees engaged in misconduct during the course of the investigation and evaluate whether any improvements in FBI policies and procedures need to be made.
In announcing the review, the FBI, a frequent target of President Donald Trump’s wrath, is stepping into a case that has become a rallying cry for Trump supporters — and doing so right as the Justice Department pushes back against criticism that its recent decision to dismiss the prosection was a politically motivated effort to do Trump’s bidding.
The announcement adds to the internal scrutiny over one of special counsel Robert Mueller’s signature prosecutions during his investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. It underscores how a case that was seemingly resolved by Flynn’s 2017 guilty plea has instead given way to a protracted, politically charged debate about FBI and Justice Department tactics during that investigation and the Russia probe more broadly.
The unusual review will be led by the bureau’s Inspection Division, which conducts internal investigations into potential employee misconduct. Trump has recently been sharply critical of the FBI, and suggested earlier this month that Wray’s fate as director could be in limbo. An FBI official said Friday that the review had been contemplated for some time and that the FBI has cooperated with multiple Russiarelated internal inquiries.
Pakistan jet with 98 aboard crashes in crowded neighborhood
KARACHI, Pakistan — A jetliner carrying 98 people crashed Friday in a crowded neighborhood near the airport in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi after an apparent engine failure during landing. Officials said there were two survivors from the plane but they also found at least 57 bodies in the wreckage.
It was unknown how many people on the ground were hurt as the Pakistan International Airlines jet, an Airbus A320, plowed into an alley and destroyed at least five houses.
The pilot was heard transmitting a mayday to the tower shortly before the crash of Flight 8303, which was flying from Lahore to Karachi and carrying many traveling for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Video on social media appeared to show the jet flying low with flames shooting from one of its engines.
The plane went down about 2:39 p.m. northeast of Jinnah International Airport in the poor and congested residential area known as Model Colony between houses that were smashed by its wings. Police in protective masks struggled to clear away crowds amid the smoke and dust so ambulances and firetrucks could reach the crash site.
BILLINGS, Mont. — A judge threw out a lawsuit on Friday from a coalition of states, environmental groups and American Indians which sought to revive an Obama-era moratorium against U.S. government coal sales on public lands in the West.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris said President Donald Trump’s administration had fixed its initial failure to consider the consequences for climate change from ending the moratorium. Acting under an earlier order in the case, the administration in February released an analysis that said the decision to resume coal sales would make little difference over time in greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, a contention critics said was flawed.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued the administration only considered emissions from a handful of leases and failed to capture the cumulative, long-term impact of the coal program. But Morris declined to weigh in on the accuracy of the administration’s conclusions. He said the February analysis was enough to fulfill the administration’s immediate legal obligations. Any review of whether it was flawed would require a new lawsuit, he added.
“Plaintiffs remain free to file a complaint to challenge the sufficiency of the (environmental analysis) and the issuance of any individual coal leases,” the judge wrote in a 24-page opinion.
Fire threatening homes near Cave Creek 100% containted
CAVE CREEK, Ariz. — A brush fire that threatened dozens of homes and caused temporary evacuations is now 100% contained.
The fire burned a little over 2 square miles near Cave Creek, a community about 33 miles north of Phoenix.
More than 130 homes were temporarily evacuated Monday as a precaution with some of the homes less than a mile from the fire.
The fire, which is under investigation and believed to be human-caused, started Sunday.
Winds picked up, causing fire to spread through a green space, into the desert, over a mountain and toward neighborhoods.
Authorities said another complicating factor was the density of vegetation, which had grown significantly thicker due to heavy rains last year.