Tag Archives: Chattanooga

Trump ousts TVA board members over outsourcing jobs; targets CEO salary

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Monday he was formally removing two members from the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority for seeking to outsource U.S. jobs to foreign workers, and criticized its chief executive as overpaid.

In remarks during a White House event, Trump threatened to remove the agency’s chief executive, Jeff Lyash, and called on the board of the nation’s largest public utility to do so. Trump has previously been critical of the agency and threatened firm disciplinary action against it.

“Let this serve as a warning to any federally appointed board. If you betray American workers, then you will hear two simple words ‘you’re fired,'” Trump said, before signing an executive order aimed at preventing federal agencies from using foreign workers and offshore labor to displace U.S. workers.

Trump said he was removing TVA board chairman James Thompson and Richard Howorth from their positions on the board.

U.S. Tech workers, a nonprofit formed to fight the growth of H1-B visas to foreign workers, had criticized TVA in a series of television ads. The group urged Trump, who has the authority to appoint the TVA board, to fire Lyash for laying off U.S. workers and replacing them with contractors hiring foreign workers.

The Chattanooga Free Press reported in June that TVA had laid off 62 IT workers in Chattanooga and Knoxville as it moved to outsource more data and programming work.

A spokesman for the TVA had no immediate comment.

During the meeting, attended by several TVA workers, Trump said he had been informed that Lyash had contacted the White House and indicated a strong willingness to reverse course.

Trump has sparred with the TVA in the past over its efforts to close coal-fired power plants. He has also previously proposed selling parts of the government-owned entity to the private sector.

The U.S. Tech workers’ group aired an ad on cable television that said Lyash received an $8.1 million compensation package, making him the “highest-paid federal employee in America.”

Trump said the position was overpaid, and the CEO should not make more than $500,000 annually. “He gets $8 million a year,” said of Lyash’s package. “That was just a succession of deep swamp things happening and it’s a disgrace.”

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Pete Schroeder and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Tom Brown)

Driver in deadly Tennessee bus crash was speeding, holding phone

Johnthony Walker, 24, is seen in a booking photo released by the Chattanooga Police after being taken into custody and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide in connection with a school bus crash in Chattanooga, Tennesse

By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE (Reuters) – The driver of a school bus that crashed in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last month, killing six children, was speeding and holding a cellphone while he drove, police said on Thursday.

Johnthony Walker, 24, who police have said was driving the bus on Nov. 21 on a winding road well above the speed limit of 30 miles per hour (48 kph), has been charged with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving.

A Hamilton County Criminal Court judge on Thursday said there was enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury.

“I do find the conduct to be reckless,” Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Lila Statom said. “There was a conscious disregard for the risk in this case.”

The bus veered off the road, flipped on its side and smashed into a tree, injuring over a dozen children in addition to the six killed, police have said.

Officials said on Thursday that Walker had been videotaped on the bus holding his cell phone while he drove, which is illegal for school bus drivers in Tennessee.

Electronic evidence, including readings from a GPS unit and engine monitor on the bus, shows the bus was traveling between “50 and 52 miles an hour,” (80 to 83 kph), Chattanooga Police Department traffic officer Joe Warren told the court on Thursday during a court appearance by Walker, who did not speak.

In addition, there were several caution signs saying that the road’s curves need to be negotiated at 20 mph, Warren said.

Warren described a video showing Walker holding his cell phone while he drove. Warren did not say whether Walker was using the phone at the time. The video was not shown in court. Warren said it was recorded by a camera inside the bus.

No drugs or alcohol were found in Walker’s system.

Walker’s attorney, Amanda Dunn, could not be reached for comment. She refused to comment to local reporters as she left the courtroom Thursday.

According to court records, Walker remains in jail on $107,000 bond.

(Writing by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Driver arrested, faces charges in deadly Tennessee school bus crash

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.,

By Frank McGurty

(Reuters) – A bus carrying elementary students home from school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, crashed on Monday afternoon, killing six children and sending nearly two dozen to a hospital with injuries, authorities said.

The driver, identified as Johnthony Walker, 24, was taken into custody and faces five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving charges, Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said during a news conference.

“This is an absolute nightmare for our community,” Fletcher said.

Chattanooga Police said earlier on Twitter the driver was being questioned and was cooperating with investigators.

Speed appeared to have contributed to the crash, which happened at 4 p.m. CST, Fletcher said.

The bus crash left five dead, police said on Twitter late on Monday. Five students died at the scene and a sixth student died at a hospital, according to Melydia Clewell, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office.

The vehicle normally carries 35 passengers, Clewell said. It was not clear how many students were riding in the bus when it crashed.

The students were in kindergarten through fifth grade, she said, which would make them roughly aged between five and 10.

Clewell said two or three children who were in hospital “could go either way.”

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S., November 21, 2016. Courtesy of Chattanooga Fire Dept/Handout via REUTERS

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S., November 21, 2016. Courtesy of Chattanooga Fire Dept/Handout via REUTERS

The crash left the bright yellow school bus wrapped around a tree, mangled and nearly severed in two. Rescue teams were still sifting through the wreckage of the bus, which was resting on its side, two hours after the crash.

Federal transportation investigators were also opening a probe into the crash, and planned to send a team to Chattanooga on Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

School officials had not found any complaints filed against the driver, Clewell said.

Two bloodied children were lying on stretchers in a front yard receiving attention from first responders nearly an hour after the crash, while others not taken to the hospital appeared dazed with cuts on their faces, the Chattanooga Times Free Press newspaper said on its website.

Asked about the crash after a hearing in Nashville, Governor Bill Haslam said the state would offer its assistance.

“It’s a sad situation anytime there’s a school bus with children involved, which there is in this case,” he said.

(Reporting by Frank McGurty; Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta in New York, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Rory Carroll in San Francisco, Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

FBI: Chattanooga Shooter Motivated By Terrorist Propaganda

The man who killed five people in shootings this summer in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was inspired by foreign terrorist propaganda, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday.

Comey made the comments while speaking at a news conference in New York.

“We have concluded that the Chattanooga killer was inspired by a foreign terrorist organization’s propaganda,” Comey told reporters, though he added the source of the propaganda couldn’t be determined and stopped short of mentioning a specific group.

“There’s competing foreign terrorist poison out there,” Comey said at the news conference. “But, to my mind, there’s no doubt that the Chattanooga killer was inspired and motivated by foreign terrorist organization propaganda. We’ve investigated it from the beginning as a terrorist case.”

Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire at two military locations on July 16.

The Kuwait native and naturalized U.S. citizen first fired upon a recruiting center, then drove seven miles to a Naval reserve facility and opened fire again. The 24-year-old killed four Marines and a sailor, all of them located at the reserve, before he was killed in a shootout with police.

In a televised address to the nation from the Oval Office on Dec. 6, President Barack Obama called the Chattanooga shooting an act of terrorism. But authorities had offered little public detail about why they believed it was terrorism-related until Comey’s comments Wednesday.

Terrorist groups often use social media to spread propaganda and communicate, and federal lawmakers have proposed new bills to combat that in the wake of the Dec. 2 mass shooting that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. Obama has also called that an act of terrorism.