Virginia

1 dies in truck after collision with

train carrying GOP lawmakers

A train carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress to a strategy retreat in the countryside slammed into a garbage truck in rural Virginia on Wednesday, killing one person in the vehicle and sending several lawmaker-doctors rushing to help the injured. At least two other people in the truck were reported seriously hurt. No serious injuries were reported aboard the chartered Amtrak train, which set out from Washington, D.C., with lawmakers, family members and staff for the luxury Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. The collision happened around 11:20 a.m. in Crozet, tearing the truck in two, crumpling the nose of the locomotive and scattering trash alongside the tracks. Rep. Robert Pittenger of North Carolina said he felt "an enormous slam. ... It was a huge jolt. We all hung on to whatever we had." He said it appeared the train had pushed the truck for a few hundred yards.

Nation

CDC director resigns over investments in tobacco, more

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director resigned Wednesday, in the middle of the nation's worst flu epidemic in nearly a decade, because of her troubling financial investments in tobacco, drug and health care companies that posed conflicts of interest. Alex Azar — the new secretary of Health and Human Services after Trump pick Tom Price resigned in the fall over investigations into his costly travels — announced the resignation of Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald. Dr. Anne Schuchat, a veteran official with the CDC, was named acting director — the position she had filled before Fitzgerald took office in July. On Tuesday, Politico reported Fitzgerald traded in tobacco stocks even after taking the position at the CDC. "It's astonishing that the director of the Centers for Disease Control, which plays a major role in reducing tobacco use, would purchase stock in a tobacco company," said William Schultz, a former general counsel for HHS.

ICE formalizes plans

for courthouse arrests

Federal immigration authorities formalized a policy Wednesday to send deportation agents to federal, state and local courthouses to make arrests, dismissing complaints from judges and advocacy groups that say it instills fear among crime victims, witnesses and family members. The two-page directive from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it will enter courthouses only for specific targets. Family, friends and witnesses won't be picked up for deportation, but ICE leaves a caveat for "special circumstances." The policy says immigration agents should generally avoid arrests in non-criminal areas, like family court and small claims, unless their supervisor approves. ICE made courtroom arrests under the Obama administration, but under President Donald Trump's wider net, there has been a roughly 40 percent surge in arrests overall.

Benghazi inquiry's Gowdy to exit

Rep. Trey Gowdy, the 53-year-old who built his name leading the investigation into the 2012 attacks against Americans in Benghazi, Libya, has become the latest prominent Republican to head for the exits rather than run for another term. The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Wednesday that he planned to return to the justice system but did not elaborate. Gowdy is involved in one of the House's Russia investigations and is the leader of a renewed review of the FBI and Clinton's private email server.

Puerto Rico

FEMA says it never intended to cut aid

The prospect of food and water assistance coming to an end for Hurricane Maria survivors blindsided Puerto Rico's government this week, prompting angry reactions and alarming lawmakers in Washington, who urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reverse course. By Wednesday, FEMA had done so — except it said it had never intended to stop helping in the first place. The agency will continue providing aid for as long as Puerto Rico needs it, said FEMA spokesman William Booher. The uproar began when agency officials mistakenly told NPR in an interview published Monday that FEMA planned to cut off food and water assistance Wednesday. "This aid is not stopping," Booher said. "There was no, and is no, current plan to stop providing these commodities, as long as there continues to be an identified need for them." According to Booher, Wednesday was an internal planning date to evaluate if Puerto Rico could still justify needing assistance. The confusion marks the latest blot in the federal government's response to Hurricane Maria, which was widely criticized as too small and too slow. More than four months after the storm, nearly a third of Puerto Rican power utility customers are still without electricity, and the island's financial position remains shaky.

Michigan

State grants unemployment benefits

to man's German Shepherd, then revokes it

Michael Ryder had been approved for $360 every week in state unemployment benefits — until Michigan learned he'd been dogging it at the Detroit-area restaurant chain where he supposedly worked. Ryder is a German Shepherd owned by attorney Michael Haddock on the other side of the state in Saugatuck. WZZM-TV reported Haddock received a benefits letter addressed to "Michael Ryder" from Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency. The station said Haddock then contacted the agency, which said its computer system sent the letter, but the claim later was flagged as suspicious and denied. Investigations administrator Tim Kolar wrote in a tongue-in-cheek email that he knows "first-hand it is rare for 'man's best friend' to contribute financially to the household and that will continue in this instance." — tbt* wires

More speak up

265

women and girls allege they were sexually abused by former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar, says Judge Janice Cunningham, who this week is presiding over a case about abuse at Twistars Gymnastics Club where young athletes felt they had to use Nassar's services and could not question the adults who ran the elite Michigan facility owned by former Olympic team coach John Geddert, who was recently suspended by USA Gymnastics. The 265 total includes 150-plus victims who spoke at a different hearing for Nassar last week, as well as scores of new ones expected to speak over the next few days infront of Cunningham. Nassar, 54, faces another long prison sentence. He has already been sentenced to 60 years on federal child-pornography charges and another 40 to 175 years on state charges that he abused women and girls while working for Michigan State University. On Wednesday, nearly 30 accusers discussed the psychological scars from his abuse — depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, trouble being around men and fractured family relationships.