1 dead, 1 injured in chemical explosion near Chicago
CHICAGO — A chemical explosion at W.R. Meadows Inc. in Hampshire Friday morning left one person dead and another critically injured, Hampshire Fire Protection District Chief Trevor Herrmann said.
The incident occurred about 10:45 a.m. when the two employees were cleaning a tank inside one of the buildings, Herrmann said. It’s not yet known what type of chemicals were involved or what might have triggered the accident, he said.
W.R. Meadows manufactures asphalt and concrete products for building construction, he said.
The person killed has not been identified pending notification of family members by the Kane County Coroner’s Office. The injury victim was taken to an Elgin hospital.
All employees have been accounted for and there were no other injuries, officials said.
The explosion caused significant property damage to the materials production facility where it occurred, Hampshire Village Manager Jay Hedges said. People living and working near the site were evacuated for safety reasons, and a village inspector is on site to determine the building’s structural integrity, Hedges said.
—Chicago Tribune
Report: Trump may back more than 1 Republican in Mo. race
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s endorsement is coveted among Republicans running for U.S. Senate in Missouri. All of the candidates talk about their support of Trump on the campaign trail. At least two have brought on former Trump staffers as paid advisers.
And more than one of them might get the endorsement.
Trump, frustrated that he’s getting conflicting advice from advisers and unsure of which one to believe, is reportedly considering endorsing more than one candidate, according to Politico.
“It seems like it sort of dilutes it,” said Jean Evans, a former chairwoman of the Missouri Republican Party.
Several candidates have touted their connections to Trump.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt is friends with Pam Bondi, who runs Trump’s Super PAC. U.S. Rep. Billy Long hired Kellyanne Conway as an adviser. Former Gov. Eric Greitens tapped Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Trump adviser who is engaged to Donald Trump, Jr., as his national chairwoman and recently hosted Rudy Giuliani in St. Louis for a fundraiser.
When asked whether the campaign would still want an endorsement from Trump if it were split among candidates, Greitens campaign manager Dylan Johnson stressed that Trump is still a force in Republican politics.
The campaigns for Schmitt and Long did not immediately respond to the question.
—The Kansas City Star
Man charged with threatening to kill Ga. election officials
ATLANTA — The FBI arrested a Texas man Friday, alleging he threatened to shoot and kill Georgia election officials the day before the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
It’s the first criminal case brought by a new U.S. Justice Department task force aimed at cracking down on threats of violence against election workers.
Chad Stark, 54, of Leander, Texas, wrote on Craigslist that “it’s our duty as American Patriots to put an end to the lives of these traitors and take back our country by force,” the Justice Department said.
The names of three Georgia officials targeted by Stark were redacted from the indictment.
The day after Stark’s post, hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was counting electoral votes and confirming now President Joe Biden’s victory. Stark’s post doesn’t appear to be directly linked to the violence in Washington.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Friday condemned threats against election workers.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Giuliani ally Igor Fruman gets 1-year term in campaign case
NEW YORK — Igor Fruman, a key figure in Rudy Giuliani’s attempts to stir up dirt against Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential election, was sentenced to a year in prison for an unrelated case involving illegal U.S. campaign contributions from a foreign national.
Fruman, an American citizen who was born in Belarus and had businesses in Ukraine, was sentenced Friday in New York by U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken. Fruman, 55, had pleaded guilty in September to the campaign-solicitation charge, and will serve the sentence after spending more than 27 months under house arrest.
Earlier, prosecutors dropped allegations that he was involved in a covert plan to secure information about Biden to curry favor with former President Donald Trump and advance Ukrainian interests in the U.S.
In a half-hour hearing in Manhattan, Fruman and his lawyers asked the judge for leniency, saying his business has been decimated by the case and his four children — who were present in the courtroom — need him. He told the judge that his actions brought him “a shame that will live with me forever.”
Fruman and his co-defendants, Lev Parnas and Andrey Kukushkin, had sought to win support from multiple U.S. states for a cannabis business they were trying to launch, according to prosecutors. The government said they used about $150,000 from a Russian investor in the pot business to make campaign contributions to state officials, mostly in Fruman’s name.
—Bloomberg News
