Trump bringing trusted aide Hicks back to White House
WASHINGTON – Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump’s most trusted and longest-serving aides, is returning to the White House as his reelection campaign moves into high gear.
Hicks will be a counselor to the president, working with presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made public.
She will not be part of the White House communications department, but will work closely with Kushner and White House political director Brian Jack “in a number of strategic areas, ” a White House official confirmed.
Hicks is expected to start early next month. Details were still being worked out Thursday.
Hicks, who was one of Trump’s original 2016 campaign staffers and moved with him to Washington after he won, left her job as White House communications director in 2018.
Last month was hottest January on record, US scientists say
WASHINGTON – Last month was the hottest January since scientists began keeping temperature records in 1880, U.S. government forecasters said Thursday.
The global average land and ocean surface temperature in January was 2.05 degrees Fahrenheit above the average January temperatures for the 20th century, because of the changing climate, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
In parts of Russia, Scandinavia and eastern Canada, temperatures exceeded the old averages by 9 degrees Fahrenheit.
Arctic front brings dangerous wind chills to upper Midwest
MINNEAPOLIS – Students stayed home from school Thursday and some businesses closed in parts of the upper Midwest as arctic air pushed wind chill readings to dangerously low temperatures.
Wind chill readings plunged to more than 40 below zero in some areas. Forecasters from the National Weather Service urged people to limit time outdoors and bundle up, as exposed skin could be subject to frostbite in as little as 10 minutes.
Police in Omaha, Nebraska, said they found the body of Robert Freymuller, 80, early Thursday not far from the assisted-living center where he lived.
His death is being investigated, but police said he was not dressed appropriately for the weather; the wind chill was minus 26 degrees at that time.
In Minnesota, the coldest wind chill reading was in Fosston, in northwestern Minnesota, where the wind chill reached minus 48 degrees, the National Weather Service said.
Several school districts were closed, and some had e-learning days.
– From wire reports