Category: ESTA News

Amid the ongoing school bus crisis due to a shortage of bus drivers across the United States, school buses in Howard County will operate normally in time for the start of the fall semester.

Michael Matirano County Superintendent of Education said, “All preparations have been completed for the normal operation of school buses to transport students from Monday, the 28th, when the fall semester begins.”

According to authorities, Howard County has contracts with 21 school bus carriers and operates 503 school bus routes. Among the carriers, California-based ‘Zoom Service’ carrier provides the most services, covering 230 routes. ‘Zoom Service’ provides school bus service to school districts such as Washington, Texas, Illinois, and Tennessee. Elkridge’s Tip Top Transportation carrier serves 58 routes.19 regional carriers divide the remaining 215 routes to provide services.

The Office of Education signed a three-year contract with ‘Zoom Service’ and ‘Tip Top Transportation’ for a total of $99 million in January. That’s about $117,000 per route.

In response, the Zoom service pays bus drivers $26 to $30 per hour. The Department of Education last year tried to terminate contracts with all school bus companies at the end of the 2022-23 school year to open bids to national and regional contractors to address the bus driver shortage, but in December of last year, some companies argued for unfair contract termination, and they filed a class action lawsuit and withdrew the termination of the contract. The lawsuit was dropped after one month.

Meanwhile, the Howard County Police Department will strengthen patrols and crackdowns for the safety of drivers and pedestrians near schools for three weeks after school starts. The police said, “We will crack down on drivers who are careless, such as speeding or not stopping in front of pedestrians.”

The police warned, “To prevent illegal overtaking of school buses, cameras have been installed on the outside of school buses since last year.” If caught, a fine of $250 will be imposed.

Former President Donald Trump, who was accused of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, is requesting that the trial be postponed after the 2024 presidential election, but six out of 10 Americans expressed the position that the trial should be held before next year’s presidential election.  In addition, half of the American people said that if former President Trump is convicted, he should be imprisoned.

Politico, a media specializing in politics, reported the results of such an opinion poll commissioned by Ipsos which was conducted on 1,032 people from the 18th to the 21st.

61% of all respondents expressed a ‘yes’ opinion when asked whether the federal trial for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election should proceed before the November 2024 presidential election. Only 19% of the responses were ‘no’ and ‘don’t know’ respectively.

In addition, 51% of the total respondents answered that they were guilty of the ‘charge of overturning the results of the presidential election’ in this poll. Then, 50% of all respondents said that if former President Trump is convicted, he should be imprisoned for punishment.

‘Probation of execution’ was recorded at 16%, ‘fine’ at 12%, and ‘no punishment’ was recorded at 18%.

On the 13th day, the families of the missing people in the wildfire-stricken area of Maui, Hawaii, are waiting for news about their families, holding on to the slightest glimmer of hope.

According to the Associated Press on the 20th, in the village of Lahaina, which was devastated by wildfires on the island of Maui, Kevin Buckleague (30) is still going to various shelters to find his wife, father-in-law and mother-in-law, who have not been reached for 13.

“I won’t give up until I see them with my own eyes,” Buckleague said. “What else can I do?”

Leona Castillo, also searching for her 28-year-old son who has gone missing since the fire, holds out hope that her son may still be alive, but she is prepared to face the hard truth.

According to the authorities, as of 6:00 pm the previous day, about 85% of the target area was searched, and the number of confirmed deaths was counted as 114. Of these, only 10 deaths have been identified.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates the number of missing people at 1,100 to 1,300. Hawaii Governor Josh Green said the day before that 40 search dogs and 470 rescuers were conducting a search operation, but considering the total number of missing people, there is still a long way to go.

During this, President Joe Biden, and his wife plan to visit the Maui fire site on the 21st, comfort the families of the dead and missing, and encourage emergency responders and firefighters. Meanwhile, CNN reported that residents who survived the fire are also suffering from severe trauma.

“Every day I go through missing persons lists and find a name I know,” said Kaniela Ing, a former Hawaii state legislator who descends from a family that has lived on Maui for seven generations. It is too much grief for people to bear.”

Jose Vargas, 20, who survived the fire because he was out of the house but lost his 15-year-old brother, said he had been unable to sleep in his bed since his brother’s remains were found. “I don’t want to sleep comfortably,” he said. “I will continue to sleep on the floor and feel uncomfortable, and I will remember my brother who left in pain like that.”

David Gobel, who also narrowly escaped and survived the fire, made plans to leave Maui. He tried to escape in a car with his family when the flames engulfed the village, but when the roads were full of cars, he got out of the car and jumped into the seawater and was rescued a few hours later.

“I have nowhere to live or work here,” he said, working as a bartender at a resort in Maui. For the time being, he will move to work in San Diego, California, where his older brother resides, and his wife plans to take the children to her parents’ house in Mexico.

“We’ve lived happily ever after in a nice home,” Gobel said. “We leave with the hope that we’ll come back.”

The hurricane, which was expected to make landfall in the southwest, has weakened as it approaches California, but it is expected to bring heavy rain and wind, so there are still concerns about great damage.

According to the National Hurricane Centre of the National Weather Service (NWS) on the 20th, Hurricane Hilary, which made landfall in Baja California, northern Mexico, as of 8:00 am (Western Time) on the same day, reduced its maximum wind speed to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) and became tropical.

On the 18th, it was observed as a Category 4 hurricane with peak wind speeds of 145 miles per hour (233 km/h), but its strength weakened significantly as it moved north along western Mexico. The Mexican government has downgraded its hurricane warning to a tropical storm warning. Hillary is currently moving rapidly northwest and is expected to pass across southern California.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned that Hillary could cause localized flash flooding accompanied by heavy rain.

By the morning of the 21st, heavy rain fell throughout the southwestern United States, and precipitation in parts of Southern California and Nevada was predicted to reach 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 cm). In addition, the Korea Meteorological Administration urged people to refrain from surfing or playing in the water as high waves and rip currents may occur in the waters near Southern California.

According to the Associated Press, one person was swept away and drowned the day before when the river overflowed the town of Santa Rosalia on the eastern coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. It’s already raining in San Diego and LA.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office, east of Los Angeles, issued an evacuation order for residents of Oak Glen and Forest Falls the previous evening due to the risk of heavy rain. According to the National Hurricane Centre, it has been 26 years since Nora in 1997 that a tropical storm has made landfall in California.

As the death toll from wildfires in Hawaii rose to 93 as of the 12th, it remains the deadliest forest fire in the United States in 100 years. According to Reuters and the Associated Press, Lahaina County, Hawaii, said on its website that the number of deaths was counted at least 93 on the fifth day of the wildfire that hit the island of Maui.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green said at a press conference earlier this afternoon that the death toll “continues to rise” and “I hope everyone is prepared for it.”

As the death toll rises, the wildfires in Hawaii have surpassed previous ones in the United States, making them the worst wildfires in more than 100 years, the Associated Press reported. In the United States, 85 people died in 2018 when wildfires spread in the northern California town of Paradise, the worst case in recent years. In 1918, wildfires in Carleton County and elsewhere in northern Minnesota burned thousands of homes and killed 453 people.

Even limited to Hawaii, the wildfires are the worst in decades, surpassing the 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people. Authorities began rescue and retrieval of bodies by putting search teams and detection dogs in the Lahaina area.

According to the Associated Press, an orange ‘X’ mark is left where the search team has been to every burnt-down house site, and ‘HR’ (human remains), which means remains, is left if there are traces of a person’s death. However, as the search is still in its infancy, the death toll is expected to rise significantly.

Maui County Police Commissioner John Peletier said the dogs used to locate the victims had only been able to search 3% of the area targeted. Director Pelletier also said, “Among the dead, two have been identified as of today,” and said that the search and identification work was not easy.

On the island of Maui, the forest fire that started on the 8th has spread uncontrollably to the beach, and damage continues to this day. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a total of 2,170 acres (8.78 km2) were burned in the Lahaina area, and more than 2,200 buildings, including homes, were destroyed.

Gov. Green said property damage was close to $6 billion. In West Maui alone, 2,200 structures were destroyed or damaged, 86% of which were residential.

“We’ve been experiencing wildfires for decades, but this is the first time we’ve experienced wildfires in the context of global warming and a hurricane,” Green said.

“We will rebuild Hawaii together, but it will take time,” Green said.

Local police are tense as a series of gang robbery cases in which dozens of people raid luxury stores in major cities have occurred one after another.

According to US media such as NBC on the 13th, a group of estimated 30 to 50 people flocked to the Nordstrom department store in the Westfield Topanga shopping mall in the west of Los Angeles the day before and bought up to 100,000 dollars. They stole a lot of luxury bags and clothes and fled.

According to video footage of the incident circulated on social media, the suspects, hiding their faces with hoods and masks, entered the store, smashed the glass of the display stand, and stole luxury bags and ran away. According to LAPD, some members of the group sprayed the guards with wild bear spray.

Bear spray contains capsaicin, which can temporarily incapacitate the opponent when used on humans.

After sweeping the luxury goods from the store, they fled in a BMW vehicle. Los Angeles police are chasing the suspects based on CCTV footage. LA Mayor Karen Bass said the incident was “absolutely unacceptable.”

Incidents of group looting of retail stores by several people have recently occurred one after another in large cities in the United States. Previously, on the 30th of last month, 400 teenagers gathered around the Roosevelt subway station near the Chicago tourist attraction ‘Museum Campus’ and started a group riot, and 40 people were arrested.

The Chicago police said they planned a large gathering through social media (SNS), flocked to a nearby store, looted goods, and vandalized the inside and outside of the store.

Following the collapse of a Manhattan parking lot in April last year in which six people were injured, the New York City Council proposed an ordinance to strengthen the safety of paid parking lots.

The package ordinance recently proposed by New York City Councilmembers Selvina Brooks-Powers, Amanda Farias, Oswald Feliz, and Crystal Hudson includes strengthening safety inspections to prevent accidents in paid parking lots and taking immediate action in the event of structural defects.

The ordinance proposed by Hudson City Council mandates parking structure inspections every four years from 2028 and follow-up measures in case management violations are found under the City Building Department regulations are carried out every two years. In addition, City Councilman Farias’s ordinance can impose up to two times the fine if violations are found on-site during parking inspections by the City Building Department, and City Councilman Brooks Powers’s ordinance specifies the weight of buildings to be accommodated at the entrance to the parking lot and vehicles exceeding the weight limit.

It contains contents such as the obligatory prohibition of entry of in addition, a Feliz city council member has proposed an ordinance requiring parking lot owners to report to the city building department and immediately repair any violations that may seriously affect the safety of the building prior to inspection by the city building department.

City Councilman Feliz said, “The parking lot accident that occurred last April was an accident that could have been prevented.” he said.

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s “subversion of the presidential election,” has asked the court to prevent former President Trump from freely disclosing evidence that the prosecution will present in future trials.

According to CNN and the Washington Post (WP) on the 5th, the prosecution pointed out that former President Trump has a habit of disclosing the investigation situation he is in to the public while submitting such a request to the court the day before.

Prosecutors captured a post that former President Trump posted on his social media account Truth Social the day before and presented it as an example. Prosecutors explained that former President Trump’s behaviour could interfere with a fair trial, such as pressuring witnesses who could testify against him at trial, so it was necessary to control it.

Prosecutors said, “The defendant has made public statements on social media in the past about witnesses, judges, lawyers, and others involved in legal matters against him.” “For example, posting publicly the details of grand jury statements that the defendant will obtain during the examination of evidence could make witnesses recoil or negatively affect the impartial administration of justice in this case.”

Prosecutors have requested that Trump’s attorneys be prevented from providing the former president with copies of “sensitive” evidence, including grand jury materials and witness interviews. If the court accepts the prosecution’s request, former President Trump will be able to read such materials, but will not be able to write down information about the identity of specific individuals in the materials.

Trump Camp insisted on freedom of expression, explaining that the social media posts pointed out by the prosecution were aimed at critics within the Republican Party. Meanwhile, former President Trump repeated his claim that the charges against him were “fake” during his first campaign after indictment in Montgomery, Alabama, the day before. “Every time they indict me, my poll rating goes up. I only need one more indictment to close this election.”

A survey found that banks are becoming stricter when it comes to loan screening amid the growing burden of loans to businesses and consumers due to high interest rates in the United States.

According to the results of a survey on bank lending behaviour released by the Federal Reserve System (Fed) on the 31st, managers in charge of credit operations at US banks responded that they strengthened their lending attitudes in both corporate and household loans in the second quarter (April to June).

In other words, it means that the screening conditions for determining whether a loan is possible are strictly evaluated or the loan limit is lowered even if a loan is approved. Regarding loan attitudes in the second half of this year, credit managers also replied that they expected to further tighten their loan standards.

As the economic outlook for the second half of the year is expected to be unfavourable or more uncertain than before, the expected decline in collateral value and credit rating was cited as the main background for strengthening lending attitudes.

In its report, the Fed said, “Major banks cited a decrease in risk tolerance, expectations of deteriorating liquidity positions, concerns over funding costs and deposit outflows, and concerns over changes in laws, supervision, and accounting standards as major reasons for strengthening lending attitudes”.

Previously, at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in July, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage point to 5.25-5.50%. The United States have had their highest interest rate increase since 2001.

As of the end of July, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the US jumped to the mid-7% range in the aftermath of the base rate hike.

Another incident occurred in downtown Chicago where hundreds of black youths looted stores, vandalized property, and threatened innocent civilians.

According to the Chicago media on the 31st, about 400 teenagers gathered around the Roosevelt subway station near the Chicago tourist attraction ‘Museum Campus’ at 8:00 pm the previous evening and started a group disturbance.

The police said that they planned and carried out large-scale gatherings through social media (SNS), saying, “As the number of the group increased, it became more and more disorderly. It is known that the disturbance on this day also originated from the ‘Teen Takeover of the city’ event that black teenagers in the south of Chicago are planning and executing through social media.

They swarmed nearby stores, looted goods, smashed the inside and outside of the store, sprayed fire extinguishers, and swept the streets, sometimes engaging in gang fights. Local police news outlet CWB said, “Some broke windows into a police uniform store and some broke into a mail delivery vehicle.” One witness posted a video of the scene on social media and urged, “Look at what your children are doing here. Please crack down on the children.”

The Chicago police authorities set up a policy to take a hard line against the ‘large-scale collective action trend’ that is not weakening and recommended front-line police officers to arrest delinquent teenagers. A 17-year-old minor,” he said. While most of those arrested face misdemeanour charges for reckless behaviour, some were charged with trespassing and bodily harm, and two were charged with felonies after being found in possession of illegal firearms.

Police said they seized three guns from those arrested. CWB said, “It is the first time since the arrest of 60 people on July 4, 2021, that Chicago police have arrested so many suspects in an urban riot case.” The police explained the background that they had arrested two people on the 25th, five days before this incident, after causing a rather small-scale disturbance in the same area.

Earlier, on April 15, 1,000 black teenagers broke into downtown Chicago and rioted. Two people shot each other, but only 15 people were arrested. At the time, a video in which a group of black teenagers collectively assaulted a white woman in her 20s on the street spread on social media, inciting public outrage. Also, on the 26th of last month, they advanced to the Lakeview district in the northern part of the city, where many white people live, and broke car windows and attacked pedestrians, and two people were arrested.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (47, Democratic) related to the incident said, “Destructive collective action is never tolerated,” but “but demonizing opportunity-hungry youth in the community is not constructive.” “We need to create spaces where these youth can safely gather,” said Mayor Johnson.