4 dead after plane crash in Florida
BARTOW, Fla. — Four people died Sunday after their twin-engine plane crashed at the end of a runway at a small airport in Florida, authorities said.
The plane already was engulfed in flames by the time fire rescue crews arrived at the scene at Bartow Municipal Airport, Polk County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Tina Mann said in a statement.
The private plane was heading east into heavy fog when it took off, according to a separate statement from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The plane crashed shortly after takeoff. The cause wasn’t immediately clear, but the sheriff’s office said it was “likely related to the fog.”
The names of the victims were not released, pending notification of next of kin.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will be investigating the crash.
Bartow is about 50 miles southwest of Orlando.
Mnuchin ‘gift’ full of it
A suspicious package that appeared Saturday night in the swanky Los Angeles neighborhood of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin prompted lengthy street closures and a sizable response by local and federal authorities, including members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s bomb squad.
But the bomb scare was a false alarm, police told local media, after the package was discovered to contain only horse manure.
A large box, covered in holiday wrapping paper and addressed to Mr. Mnuchin, was left outside the home of one of his Bel Air neighbors Saturday evening, ABC 7 News reported.
The package was labeled as being from “the American people,” according to the news station.
Secret Service agents and Los Angeles police, including bomb-squad officers, soon swarmed the area to investigate the package.
In video of the scene taken by an NBC Los Angeles helicopter, an officer can be seen opening the box, dumping out its contents and spreading a dark, unevenly clumped substance across the ground.
The substance ended up being horse manure, police said. And, according to aerial footage, there was a lot of it.
It is unclear whether Mr. Mnuchin was home during the incident.
Flake lashes Trump
Sen. Jeff Flake warned Sunday that President Donald Trump will face a primary challenge or an independent opponent in 2020 if the Republican continues his bombastic ways.
“I do believe if the president is running for reelection, if he continues on the path that he’s on, that that’s going to leave a huge swath of voters looking for someone else,” Mr. Flake, R-Ariz., said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think he’s inviting that. He’s probably inviting a Republican challenge as well.”
Mr. Flake said he wouldn’t rule it out, but that running himself is “not in my plans.”
The senator has been critical of the path his party is taking. Since Mr. Trump took office nearly a year ago, Mr. Flake has been one of the more critical voices in the president’s party.