Amtrak train derails in Kan., injuring at least 32
CIMARRON, Kan. – An Amtrak train carrying 131 passengers derailed in rural Kansas early Monday, moments after an engineer noticed a significant bend in a rail and applied the emergency brakes, an official said.
At least 32 people were hurt, two critically, authorities said.
Hours later, investigators said they were checking whether a vehicle crash may have damaged the track before the accident.
The train, which also had 14 crew members, was making a 43-hour journey from Los Angeles to Chicago when it derailed shortly after midnight along a straight stretch of tracks in flat farmland near Cimarron, a small community about 160 miles west of Wichita. Eight cars derailed, and four of them ended up on their sides.
Brazil Congress to revive impeachment process
Legislators are gearing up to revive Brazil’s stalled impeachment process as early as this week after millions of people on Sunday demanded the ouster of President Dilma Rousseff.
Lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha said he would call for the creation of a congressional committee tasked with issuing a recommendation on impeachment the day after the Supreme Court issues new guidelines on the process. The top court is expected to make its decision on Wednesday.
“I’ll move the process along quickly once the rules are clarified,” Cunha wrote in a text message, adding that he could even call a meeting for Friday. That would be an unusual move in a parliament that’s usually only in session from Tuesday through Thursday.
Support for Rousseff began crumbling in Congress in recent weeks after fresh allegations drew her Workers’ Party deeper into a two-year corruption scandal over kickbacks at state-run oil company Petrobras. Nationwide protests on Sunday, the largest on record, are likely to prompt more legislators to reconsider their support for Rousseff, potentially speeding up her ouster, said political analyst Ricardo Ribeiro.
Study: August babies more likely to get ADHD diagnosis
One of the most contentious debates in child development in the United States is what’s leading to the sharp rise in cases of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). More than 1 in 10 children ages 4 to 17 are estimated to have the diagnosis, and scientists are looking at the role things such as genetics, environmental exposures and low birth weight might play.
An increasingly vocal group of educators has expressed concern that it has more to do with the increasing emphasis on academics in kindergarten in many districts and that children who have trouble sitting still and are more wiggly than their peers are being prematurely slapped with the label.
A new paper published in the Journal of Pediatrics provides some evidence to support that theory.
The study involved examining data from 378,881 children ages 4 to 17 from 1997 to 2011 in Taiwan and found that ADHD was significantly more likely to be diagnosed in the youngest children in a grade. Taiwan, like many U.S. school districts, has a cut-off date of Aug. 31 for school enrollment. The researchers found that boys and girls born in August were much more likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis than their counterparts born in September who were 11 months older.
Associated Press & Washington Post
