‘Controlled demolition’ planned for collapsed NY parking garage
NEW YORK — A “controlled demolition” is now planned for the century-old lower Manhattan parking garage that collapsed, killing one, after first responders painstakingly remove cars and debris from the site, FDNY officials said Wednesday.
While no one is believed to be trapped or unaccounted for at the four-story Ann St. garage following Tuesday’s collapse, the FDNY will continue to have a presence at the site to put out any potential fires and search for any possible human remains, a department official said.
All utilities to the building were shut off as preparations for the demolition were made, city officials said.
The first phase of the demolition will be the removal of the vehicles that were in the garage when the top floor pancaked down on the levels below, officials said.
One person was killed and seven people suffered minor injuries in the 4 p.m. collapse. A handful of the injured were garage parking attendants, officials said.
—New York Daily News
Michigan moves ahead on bill allowing gun seizures from at-risk owners
LANSING, Mich. — A bill that would allow Michigan police agencies to seize guns owned by those deemed a threat to themselves or others passed the state Senate Wednesday and is headed to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk for final approval.
The Senate voted along party lines 20-17 for the "red flag" proposal, which is a final piece of Democratic lawmakers' initial response to a Feb. 13 mass shooting on the campus of Michigan State University that left three students dead and five injured. Last week, Whitmer, a Democrat, signed legislation to expand background check requirements for firearm purchases and impose storage standards for guns kept in homes where children are present.
Under the "red flag" bill, courts could issue extreme risk protection orders if they determine a person can reasonably be expected to seriously injure someone by possessing a gun. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, the sponsor of the bill, has argued the measure will save lives.
"These laws will help prevent tragedies before they occur while maintaining due process, by allowing law enforcement to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who pose a risk to themselves or others," McMorrow said in a past statement.
Opponents of the Michigan proposal have said it unconstitutionally allows people's guns to to be confiscated.
—The Detroit News
Kyiv says Putin doppelganger, not Russian leader, visited war zone
BERLIN — Kyiv is casting doubt on Kremlin reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently traveled to the war zone in Ukraine again, claiming that it had been a doppelganger instead.
"That wasn't the real Putin," Ukraine's National Security Council Secretary Olexiy Danilov said on television on Wednesday, without giving evidence.
"In order to talk to the real Putin, you need to self-isolate for 10 to 14 days," he added.
According to a statement from the Kremlin on Tuesday, the Russian president had traveled again to the war zone in Ukraine, meeting Russian troops fighting in the regions of Kherson and Luhansk as well as high-ranking officers.
This would be Putin's second trip to the war zone since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
The exact date of the troop visit was not disclosed.
The Kremlin also released a short video showing Putin getting out of a helicopter and shaking hands with uniformed men.
According to Danilov, however, the person seen in Kherson was "an ordinary double, of which there are several, as we know."
The Ukrainian security official called Putin "a frightened man," claiming that the idea that he had decided to visit the front was simply impossible.
—dpa
Former Rep. Stutzman looks for comeback with Indiana seat open
WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Marlin Stutzman says that now that his sons have grown, it’s time to try to return to the House.
Stutzman, an Indiana Republican, used Tuesday’s tax filing deadline as the occasion to formally launch his comeback bid.
“Through the last several years, in being a business owner and experiencing COVID, inflation, the cost of everything going through the roof and watching our federal government operate has frankly just ticked me off,” Stutzman said in an interview with WANE, the CBS affiliate in Fort Wayne.
Stutzman left the House when his term expired at the beginning of 2017, having lost the Republican primary for Senate to current Sen. Todd Young. In that contest, Young managed to appeal to supporters of Donald Trump at the same time he maintained his establishment credentials.
Stutzman was a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus during his first tour in the House.
Stutzman was succeeded by Rep. Jim Banks in the overwhelmingly Republican 3rd District. Banks is now running for Senate, and the primary field to replace him in the House is already crowded.
—CQ-Roll Call
