Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania woman pulled from blast at chocolate factory recalls smelling gas
A lady pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate manufacturing facility after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says her arm caught hearth as flames engulfed the constructing – after which she fell by means of the ground right into a vat of liquid chocolate.
The darkish liquid extinguished her blazing arm, however Patricia Borges wound up breaking her collarbone and each of her heels. She would spend the subsequent 9 hours screaming for assist and ready for rescue as firefighters battled the inferno and choppers thumped overhead on the RM Palmer manufacturing facility.
“After I started to burn, I assumed it was the tip for me,” Borges, 50, instructed the Related Press in an unique interview from her hospital mattress in West Studying, Pennsylvania, simply minutes from the chocolate manufacturing facility the place she labored as a machine operator. Investigators from the Nationwide Transportation Security Board deliberate to interview Borges on Friday.
The 24 March blast at RM Palmer killed seven of Borges’s co-workers and injured 10. Federal, state and native officers are investigating. A trigger has not been decided, however the federal transportation security company has characterised it as a pure fuel explosion.
Borges mentioned she and others had complained a few fuel odor roughly half-hour earlier than the manufacturing facility blew up. She is indignant Palmer didn’t instantly evacuate. She mentioned the deaths of her co-workers – together with her shut buddy, Judith Lopez-Moran – might have been prevented.
Different staff have additionally mentioned they smelled pure fuel, based on their family members. Palmer, a 75-year-old, family-run firm with deep roots in its small residence city north-west of Philadelphia, had not responded on Friday to the employees’ claims.
Talking in Spanish over videoconference, her eyes bruised and her burned proper arm closely bandaged, Borges recounted her terrifying brush with demise after the 5pm explosion.
Borges was thrown to the bottom from a ladder after the blast. She started operating, however the ground gave approach, and he or she fell right into a horizontal chocolate tank within the facility’s basement. The chocolate protected her from the blast’s flames. However then the vat started filling with water from firefighters’ hoses, and for hours she screamed, “Assist, assist, please assist!”
First, search canines alerted rescuers that there would possibly a survivor within the rubble. Then crews discovered Borges by following the sound of her voice. She was in chest-deep water, and her toes have been damaged, however her rescue gave an emotional increase to crews who by then had already pulled out two our bodies.
Borges got here to the US greater than 30 years in the past after rising up within the Mexican state of Puebla. She faces surgical procedure on each of her toes and an extended restoration, and her household has launched a GoFundMe marketing campaign to cowl a few of her anticipated medical bills.
She hopes the manufacturing facility will likely be held to account after failing to right away evacuate staff once they reported the gaseous scent.
“I wished to talk in order that this will likely be prevented sooner or later,” she mentioned. “For my colleague Judy, I would like there to be justice.”
Pennsylvania
Fetterman: I think Biden will win Pennsylvania in 2024 | CNN Politics
Fetterman: I think Biden will win Pennsylvania in 2024
Senator John Fetterman tells CNN’s Jake Tapper “I do believe that Joe Biden is going to carry” Black voters by wide margins in November, but the election is “going to be very close.”
Pennsylvania
Weather alert issued for dense fog in part of Pennsylvania Sunday morning
A report from the National Weather Service was issued on Sunday at 6:03 a.m. for dense fog until 8 a.m. for Westmoreland Ridges, Fayette Ridges and Higher Elevations of Indiana as well as Mercer, Venango, Forest, Lawrence, Butler, Clarion, Beaver, Allegheny, Armstrong, Washington, Greene, Westmoreland, Fayette and Indiana counties.
“Patchy dense fog is ongoing this morning, especially in and around river valleys and areas that saw the heaviest rainfall this weekend. If traveling, take it slow and allow extra time to reach your destination. Fog should begin to lift in most locations after 8 am,” according to the weather service.
Fog safety: Tips from the weather service for safe travels
If you must drive in foggy conditions, keep the following safety tips in mind:
Reduce speed:
- Slow down and allow extra travel time to reach your destination safely.
Visibility priority:
- Ensure your vehicle is visible to others by using low-beam headlights, which also activate your taillights. If you have fog lights, use them.
Avoid high-beams:
- Refrain from using high-beam lights, as they create glare, making it more difficult for you to see what’s ahead of you on the road.
Keep your distance:
- Keep a considerable following distance to account for sudden stops or shifts in traffic patterns.
Stay in your lane:
- Use the road’s lane markings as a guide to staying in the correct lane.
Visibility near zero:
- In situations of near-zero visibility due to dense fog, activate your hazard lights and seek a secure location, such as a nearby business’s parking lot, to pull over and come to a stop.
Limited parking options:
- If no parking area is available, pull your vehicle as far to the roadside as possible. Once stationary, turn off all lights except the hazard flashers, engage the emergency brake, and release the brake pedal to ensure your tail lights are not illuminated, reducing the risk of other drivers colliding with your stationary vehicle.
By adhering to these weather service precautions, you can navigate foggy conditions more safely, reducing the likelihood of accidents and ensuring your personal safety.
Advance Local Weather Alerts is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to compile the latest data from the National Weather Service.
Pennsylvania
'Stop Trump Summit': Conference debates if Pa. will ‘go blue’ in 2024
Abortion is a hot issue
Salon senior politics writer Amanda Marcotte led a panel titled “Will abortion decide this election?”
Local speakers Lizbeth Rodriguez of the Philadelphia Women’s Center, Drexel University law professor David Cohen, and Rutgers Law professor Kimberly Mutcherson participated in the discussion.
Marcott asked how the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which overturned Roe v. Wade has affected abortion access in the state.
“In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal,” Rodriguez said. “However, legality has never meant accessibility for folks. For a lot of marginalized communities, these barriers, bad laws and restrictions on providers have been affecting us for the past 50 years.”
Cohen said states like Pennsylvania have a responsibility to expand access.
“We’ve seen states around the country where abortion remains legal, where pro-choice legislators and governors have actually started actually doing what we’ve wanted them to do for decades – which is get rid of restrictions that have remained on the books even in liberal states and fund abortion,” he said.
Panelists said they are seeing some women come to Pennsylvania from other states seeking abortion support. But Rodriguez says the state is “still very restricted.”
“We have the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act with mandatory waiting periods, restrictions on young folks, and a number of restrictions on providers that truly make it difficult for folks in red states to come and seek care here,” she said.
Mutcherson told Marcotte that New Jersey has gone much farther in terms of expanding access.
“There are lots of jokes about New Jersey, but if you are a person who cares about reproductive healthcare and abortion in particular, New Jersey is at the top of the list,” she said. “We have a great reproductive freedom act that was passed even before Dobbs came down. We do not have the kinds of restrictions that a lot of states have, including gestational limits. You can use Medicaid to pay for abortion in New Jersey. So low income women have access to abortion in ways that are not true in a lot of other states.”
All eyes on PA
Biden is expected to heavily focus on Pennsylvania this election cycle, given the importance of a win for either candidate but also his affinity for his birth state.
“Biden loves Pennsylvania,” writer and author Molly Jong-Fast said, noting that a Biden staff member told her “Biden is always in a good mood when we go to Harrisburg.”
She added that she doesn’t believe in polls – which are giving an edge to Donald Trump in Pennsylvania – and that Biden had advantages the former president doesn’t.
Biden is “a politician because he’s good at connecting with people,” she said.
Saturday’s event was co-sponsored by Project on Government Oversight. Other speakers included University of Pennsylvania law professor Claire Finkelstein, Drexel Klinke School of Law professor David Cohen, The Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, Salon politics writer Amanda Marcotte, Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman, The New Republic staff writer Walter Shapiro, and POGO Action policy counsel Joe Spielberger.
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