Brief News
Pennsylvania – Pileup Final Report
The massive pileup caused by a sudden snow squall on a Pennsylvania highway last Monday left six people dead and involved 80 vehicles, state police wrote in a crash report Wednesday.
According to final numbers in the report, there were 39 commercial vehicles and 41 passenger vehicles involved in the crash, a total well above earlier estimates. The death toll of six is up from a coroner’s earlier estimate of at least three deaths.
A snow squall is a term for an intense period of moderate-to-heavy snowfall of limited duration that is accompanied by strong, gusty surface winds and possibly lightning. Snow accumulation may be significant. Over two dozen fire companies responded to the crash, where multiple vehicles were on fire, according to John Blickley, deputy emergency management coordinator for Schuylkill County.
Ukraine – “Smokescreen”
Russian forces are still pounding the cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv just days after Russia claimed to reduce military activity in the areas as part of a possible peace agreement. Heavy shelling continued in the eastern part of Ukraine today as the Russian military has appeared to shift its focus to the Donbas region, a politically murky area of Ukraine controlled by Russian separatists.
Ukrainian lawmakers visiting the US said Russia’s overtures at peace talks earlier this week were a “smokescreen” so their forces could regroup and re-strategize. Ukrainian officials say Russian forces could be regrouping in Belarus, Russia’s neighboring ally directly north of Ukraine.
Gas prices – 1 million barrels of oil per day
President Joe Biden is considering releasing about 1 million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to alleviate persistent high gas prices. Tapping the stockpile of 600 million barrels of crude oil, which are stored in underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas, probably will not have a huge effect on gas prices because of limits on how much oil can be released at a time.
But it is a political sign from Biden that he is trying to address the problem. The US price of a gallon of regular gasoline spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine, hitting a record high of $4.33 earlier this month. The invasion has also snarled global supply chains that were supposed to be recovering from pandemic-related woes.
Immigration – Biden to end controversial Trump-era
The Biden administration is planning to end controversial Trump-era pandemic restrictions on the US-Mexico border by May 23. The public health provision, known as Title 42, has largely blocked migrants from entering the US and has attracted the consternation of Democrats and immigration advocates who say there is no scientific justification for the restriction.
Nonetheless, the Biden administration has kept the measure in place. About 1.7 million migrants have been sent back to Mexico or their country of origin since March 2020, according to US Customs and Border Protection data. Homeland Security Department officials are bracing for an influx when the ban is lifted, with preparations being made for up to 18,000 arrivals per day.
