Death Toll in Florida Highway Crash Rises to 7, Including ‘Several Children’

The number of people killed in a crash in Florida has risen to seven, with several children among the deceased, according to reports. Two big rigs and two vehicles collided on Jan. 3, spilling fuel across a highway, and sparking a massive fire. About 50 gallons of diesel were spilled across Interstate 75 near Gainesville in Florida, authorities said, as two tractor-trailer rigs, a passenger van, and a mid-sized sedan crashed around 3.30 p.m. Several people were transported to a nearby hospital suffering critical injuries, according to the Gainesville Sun. Initially, six people were reported to have died, but authorities increased this to seven late on Thursday, Jan. 3.

Lieutenant Patrick Riordan from the Florida Highway Patrol told ABC Action News that several of the seven dead were children, but he didn’t have exact numbers at this time. Emergency responders said the crash was being treated as a homicide, but they didn’t elaborate on the reasons why. Lieutenant Riordan told The Associated Press that their top priorities were to conduct a thorough investigation and to identify the deceased victims. “There’s going to be families that need to be notified that their loves ones have perished,” said Lieutenant Patrick Riordan. Riordan said he didn’t know whether the victims were killed by the force of the crash or if they had burned in the fire, making identifying them difficult. He said five of the victims had been traveling in the passenger van, with others from the van hospitalized but he didn’t know how many.

The fire was so intense that it burned into the road. Emergency crews were able to bring it under control and extinguish it. Nicole Towarek, a student at Western University student in Ontario, told the Gainesville Sun that the heat was “insane.” “We kept seeing these little explosions and fire,” she said.

Debris from the crash was strewn across the road, Florida Highway Patrol said, with the highway closed in both directions in the aftermath of the crash. “There are engine parts and components, and there is a lot of area that is burned,” Riordan told the Gainesville Sun. “Contamination of fuel is a high probability at this point.”

A tweet from the Alachua County Sherriff’s office called for “all hands on deck” to deal with the emergency. They wrote that the crash was in the northbound lanes but that the southbound lanes were closed to keep a route open for first responders. “Unfortunately, this is a mass casualty crash with fire and an extensive scene. The crash is in the NB lanes. We needed to keep a route for first responders open. We apologize for delays in the commute. This required all hands on deck. The closure is going to be lengthy,” said the office. Fearing there may have been victims in the woods close to the highway, a helicopter was called in to assist with the search. Other details about the incident were not released by police or fire officials.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/death-toll-in-florida-highway-crash-rises-to-7-including-several-children_2756809.html

>>4594869

Indeed..also being pursued as a homicide, all details not revealed.. children died, van involved..all seems to add up to something.

US Economy Smashes Expectations Adding 312,000 Jobs in December

The U.S. economy beat expectations in December, adding 312,000 jobs, according to the official figures released by the Department of Labor on Jan. 4. Wall Street analysts expected the United States to gain 180,000 jobs in December. The official numbers beat the Wall Street estimate by 43 percent. The jobs gain is the biggest in 10 months and can help allay a recent upsurge in fears about the economy’s health that has roiled financial markets.

The unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percent from 3.7 percent in November. In December last year, the unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent. The average hourly wage rose 3.2 percent from the same time last year. Most of the jobs gains were in health care, food service, construction, manufacturing, and retail, the Labor Department said. The health care industry added 50,000 jobs, the most of any industry. Food service and construction sectors followed with 41,000 and 38,000 jobs respectively.

The upbeat employment report from the Labor Department on Friday stood in stark contrast with reports this week showing Chinese factory activity contracting for the first time in 19 months in December and weak manufacturing across much of Europe and Asia. Data for October and November was revised to show 58,000 more jobs added than previously reported. The economy created 2.6 million jobs last year compared to 2.2 million in 2017.

The December employment surge pushed the total U.S. employment past 150 million jobs for the first time in history. “This is the 12th jobs report following the historic rewrite of our nation’s tax code, and the trend remains the same: strong growth for America,” Rep. Kevin Brady said in a statement. “This is what Republicans aimed for with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—this full year of major job and wage gains is worth celebrating.”

The partial government shutdown does not affect the Labor Department, which will continue publishing jobs figures. Meanwhile, reports from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis have been suspended pending a resolution to an impasse between the Democrats and Republicans over border wall funding. The shutdown, if it continues, could affect payrolls in January. Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters on Jan. 3 that federal government worker furloughs could translate to “a big negative” in the January jobs numbers. But the workers will ultimately be paid, he added.

The strong employment report likely keeps the Federal Reserve on course to continue raising interest rates this year, deepening its rift with President Donald Trump, who has chastised the Fed and its chairman, Jerome Powell, repeatedly for the rate increases. Powell is due to appear on a panel with his two predecessors about two hours after the report’s release. The central bank is on a rate hike spree since late 2016. In the eight years before Trump, the Fed kept the rate at a historic low. The president doesn’t agree with the current course and has referred to the Fed as a “bigger problem than China.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-economy-smashes-expectations-adding-312000-jobs-in-december_2756888.html

China and US to Hold Trade Talks in Beijing Next Week

BEIJING—China and the United States will hold vice ministerial level trade talks in Beijing on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, with the two countries under pressure to end a trade war. For much of the past year, the trade war has disrupted the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods and stoked fears of a global economic slowdown. A team led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish will come to China to have “positive and constructive discussions” with Chinese counterparts, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement on its website.

In a separate statement on Friday, USTR said the delegation will also include Under Secretaries from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Treasury, as well as senior officials from those agencies and the White House. Neither statement provided more details about the talks, but in an interview with Fox News Business Network, White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow said the discussions will examine “the whole story,” including commodities, agriculture and industrial capital goods.

Pressure to strike a deal mounted this week after data showed slowing U.S. and Chinese manufacturing activity and as companies like Apple Inc and Cargill Inc said the trade battle was hitting earnings. At a summit in Argentina late last year, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to hold off on additional tariffs for 90 days while they attempted to negotiate a deal.

Now China and the United States face a March deadline for talks to end the damaging trade war, or Washington could proceed with a sharp hike in U.S. tariffs and Beijing could retaliate. Trump has said talks are progressing well, but it remained unclear if Beijing will yield to U.S. demands for more open markets, forced technology transfer and industrial subsidies. Meeting some of those demands would require difficult structural reform. “We know what sort of changes we need. Now, the question is can we negotiate these changes and can we do so with enforcement (and) with timetables,” Kudlow said on Friday.

USTR said the delegation will include USTR Chief Agricultural Negotiator Gregg Doud, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney, Department of Commerce Under Secretary for International Trade Gilbert Kaplan, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg, and Treasury’s Under Secretary for International Affairs David Malpass.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-and-us-to-hold-trade-talks-in-beijing-next-week_2757027.html

>>4594978

They are indeed!

>>4594995 @ >>4595043