Georgia
ATLANTA – Gas prices spiked as the gas shortage in the South rolled into the work week, raising fears that the scattered disruptions could become more widespread.
The shortage is blamed on a pipeline rupture and leak of at least 252,000 gallons of gas in Alabama. The pipeline is shipping “significant volumes” of gasoline in the second of the its two lines to limit the impact of the interruption on the other line.
Colonial Pipeline said supplies have either been delivered or are on their way to locations in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
Oklahoma
TULSA, Oklahoma – The Tulsa Police Department released video footage Monday that shows a white police officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man – footage that the city’s police chief called “very disturbing.”
“It’s very difficult to watch,” Police Chief Chuck Jordan said at a news conference Monday. “The first time I watched it, I watched it with the family. ... We will do the right thing; we will not cover anything up."
Jordan said investigators never found a weapon on Terence Crutcher or in his vehicle after the 40-year-old was shot and killed Friday as he stood beside his stalled SUV.
U.S. Attorney Danny Williams has announced that the Justice Department has opened an independent investigation into the shooting.
Florida
MIAMI – Authorities declared a victory Monday in stemming further infections of Zika in Miami’s Wynwood arts district, but continued to caution pregnant women about traveling to the city and surrounding areas out of concerns for catching the virus.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted a warning for pregnant women to stay out of the Wynwood neighborhood altogether, saying it was no longer a zone of active transmission. They credited aerial spraying of pesticides targeting the mosquitoes that transmit the virus.
Zika infections are mild for most people but can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including a dangerously small head, if women are infected during pregnancy. Dr. Celeste Philip, Florida’s surgeon general, said the state is trying to speed up processing for Zika tests for pregnant women.
Mexico
Federal authorities in Mexico have discovered a van outfitted with a makeshift bazooka, apparently intended to launch packages over the border with the United States, according to a statement from the Mexican national security commission.
The van was parked in Agua Prieta in northeastern Sonora, a state that shares the border with Arizona,
In the past, drug smugglers have found creative ways to transport illegal goods – using air space, intricate underground tunnels and oceans to do so. It was unclear if the cannon used in this instance was intended to traffic narcotics.
