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Fundraise established for family of Wichita man killed in DC plane crash

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Fundraise established for family of Wichita man killed in DC plane crash


WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A fundraising effort was launched Friday in support of the family of a Wichita man who died in Wednesday night’s plane crash in Washington, D.C. PJ Diaz, a graduate of Valley Center High School, was 30 years old.

The GoFundMe, organized by a family friend, asks for assistance to help Diaz’s family with covering costs and travel expenses to and from DC.

“Raised funds will also help pay for the funeral and any other unexpected expenses during this heartbreaking time,” the GoFundMe said. A note of gratitude for those who donate also asks that people keep Diaz’s family in their prayers.

On social media Thursday, PJ’s mother offered the following statement:

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“I don’t post often but my heart is broken and reaching out for prayers for me and my family. My son PJ was on the flight to DC that crashed. Please pray God gives us strength to get through this devastating time. I love you PJ and always will.” -Linda Diaz



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Future of Rock Creek Park Horse Center uncertain

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Future of Rock Creek Park Horse Center uncertain


The future of the Rock Creek Park Horse Center is unclear after the contractor told the National Park Service it’s losing money and wants out.

Ferrall Dietrick has been coming to the horse center in Northwest D.C. since she was three years old. It’s been a special place that holds decades of memories.

“We’ve had seven horses over the years that we’ve boarded here. It’s been an incredible community. It’s accessible to Rock Creek Park and we ride on the miles and miles of trails in the park,” she said.

But Dietrick and others who love to ride at the horse center have been told Guest Services, Inc., the contractor that operates the facility, has no plans to stay and is starting to move horses out of the barn.

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“They’ve already transferred two horses from the school house to out of state to other locations and they have a plan to transfer all of the horses out by the end of February,” said Larry Hanauer, who frequents the horse center. “Guest Services has not sent any communications to anyone in the community.”

Guest Services did not respond to News4’s request for comment, but late Friday afternoon sent an email to patrons of the horse center confirming its plans to step away.

In part, the company said that financial challenges have become unsustainable.

The National Park Service (NPS) said it was in discussions with Guest Services about possibly getting out of its contract, but there were no decisions or timelines as of Friday evening.

“The Horse Center remains open, and we are actively exploring future operational options to ensure it continues to serve the community,” NPS said.

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Some people who board their horses at the center are in the process of moving them out.

Craig Scherer has been a volunteer at the center and likes to ride every Monday.

But he said there’s been a noticeable decline.

“We used to have 63 horses and around 300 kids,” he said.

Some say Guest Services hasn’t properly invested in the facility.

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Black Hawk helicopter in D.C. plane crash had a safety system off, senator says

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Black Hawk helicopter in D.C. plane crash had a safety system off, senator says


The Army Blackhawk helicopter that collided with an American Eagle flight over the Potomac River late last month was flying with a safety system turned off, Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters Thursday following a closed door briefing by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.

All 67 people on the two aircraft were killed when they collided near Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C.

Cruz, a Texas Republican, chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which has oversight of the airline industry.

He said senators were told the helicopter had its automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system turned off. Military aircraft are allowed to fly with that system off.

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ADS-B provides detailed granular information to track aircraft locations. The Blackhawk had a transponder, so it would have appeared on radar and was providing flight data, though the ADS-B is much more accurate.

“Unless there was a compelling national security reason for turning it off, that does not seem justified and in this instance, this was a training mission so there was no national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off,” Cruz told reporters.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a former Army helicopter pilot, also noted the questions surrounding the safety system.

“What we don’t know … whether or not the helicopter actually had their ADSP-out turned on. It sounds like it might not have been turned on, but the Army was very clear that the equipment was actually is installed in the aircraft.”

Still, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters the agency’s investigators had not confirmed whether the chopper was even equipped with the technology.

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“We don’t know that at this time,” Homendy said before describing the helicopter crew’s mission. “This was a combined night vision goggle annual check ride.”

ADS-B data is one of the data streams fed to air traffic controllers along with Center Radar and Approach Radar. It’s fused together into a single display on controllers’ screens.

Even without the ADS-B data, it has been revealed, the controller involved had a track on the helicopter that showed it at an altitude of 300 feet.  The controller was in touch with the Black Hawk, which indicated it could see the plane and would maintain separation.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questioned last week why the FAA has allowed military flights with the ADS-B system turned off.

The NTSB will seek to determine if the system was present and turned on — and if not, why not — and whether its use might have helped avoid the accident, though it appears there was enough data that the danger of the situation should have been clear, regardless.

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contributed to this report.

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WATCH: Trump says he wants to root out 'anti-Christian bias' from U.S. at the National Prayer Breakfast

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WATCH: Trump says he wants to root out 'anti-Christian bias' from U.S. at the National Prayer Breakfast


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the U.S., announcing that he was forming a task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians.

Watch in our player above.

Speaking at pair of events in Washington surrounding the the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said the task force would be directed to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.”

Trump said Bondi would also work to “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”

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READ MORE: Bondi orders review of Trump cases after being sworn in as attorney general

The president’s comments came after he joined the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol, a more than 70-year-old Washington tradition that brings together a bipartisan group of lawmakers for fellowship, and told lawmakers there that his relationship with religion had “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year and urged Americans to “bring God back” into their lives.

An hour after calling for “unity” on Capitol Hill, though, Trump struck a more partisan tone at the second event across town, announcing that, in addition to the task force, he was forming a commission on religious liberty, criticizing the Biden administration for “persecution” of believers for prosecuting anti-abortion advocates.

And Trump took a victory lap over his early administration efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to limit transgender participation in women’s sports.

“I don’t know if you’ve been watching, but we got rid of woke over the last two weeks,” he said. “Woke is gone-zo.”

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Trump’s new task force drew criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The group’s president and CEO, Rachel Laser, said “rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws.”

WATCH: ‘Have mercy’ on LGBTQ+ communities and immigrants, Episcopal bishop asks Trump

Trump said at the Capitol that he believes people “can’t be happy without religion, without that belief. Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”

In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two dueling events, the one on Capitol Hill largely attended by lawmakers and government officials and a larger private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom. The split occurred when lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group that for decades had overseen the bigger event, due to questions about its organization and how it was funded.

Trump, at both venues, reflected on having a bullet coming within a hair’s breadth of killing him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, telling lawmakers and attendees, “It changed something in me, I feel.”

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“I feel even stronger,” he continued. “I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.” Speaking later at a separate prayer breakfast sponsored by a private group at a hotel, he remarked, “it was God that saved me.’

READ MORE: Migrants can now be arrested at churches and schools after Trump administration throws out policies

He drew laughs at the Capitol event when he expressed gratitude that the episode “didn’t affect my hair.”

The Republican president, who’s a nondenominational Christian, called religious liberty “part of the bedrock of American life” and called for protecting it with “absolute devotion.”

Trump and his administration have already clashed with religious leaders, including him disagreeing with the Rev. Mariann Budde’s sermon the day after his inauguration, when she called for mercy for members of the LGBTQ+ community and migrants who are in the country illegally.

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Vice President JD Vance, who’s Catholic, has sparred with top U.S. leaders of his own church over immigration issues. And many clergy members across the country are worried about the removal of churches from the sensitive-areas list, allowing federal officials to conduct immigration actions at places of worship.

The president made waves at the final prayer breakfast during his first term. That year the gathering came the day after the Senate acquitted him in his first impeachment trial.

Trump in his remarks then threw not-so-subtle barbs at Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who publicly said she prayed for Trump, and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who had cited his faith in his decision to vote to convict Trump.

“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,” Trump said then in his winding speech, in which he also held up two newspapers with banner headlines about his acquittal. “Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to attend the prayer breakfast, in February 1953, and every president since has spoken at the gathering.

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Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas are the honorary co-chairs of this year’s prayer breakfast.

In 2023 and 2024, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, spoke at the Capitol Hill event, and his remarks were livestreamed to the other gathering.

AP writers Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee, and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.



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