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Two US Army helicopters crashed during a nighttime training mission in Kentucky, killing all nine soldiers on board, a general said Thursday.
The helicopters -- variants of the Black Hawk designed for medical evacuation -- were taking part in a routine training mission the night before when the crash occurred, Brigadier General John Lubas told a news conference.
It "resulted in the death of all nine service members aboard the aircraft," all of them members of the 101st Airborne Division, which is based at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, he said.
Five soldiers were on one helicopter and four on another, Lubas said, noting that the military is still working to notify all the families of those killed.
The helicopters -- which were flying in formation with the pilots using night vision goggles -- were able to land in an open field across from a residential area, avoiding deaths or injuries on the ground, he said.
With an investigative team heading to Fort Campbell from the base where US Army Aviation is headquartered in Alabama, it was still unknown whether the two helicopters collided.
"We have a safety team coming... from Fort Rucker, Alabama who specialize in aircraft safety and specifically these investigations," Lubas said.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear mourned the lost soldiers and praised those who responded to the crash.
"We are blessed to live in the freest country in the history of planet Earth. But we must remember that that freedom relies on those who are willing to serve, some of which pay the ultimate price," the governor told the news conference.
'Just disappeared'
"We're going to do what we always do. We're going to wrap our arms around these families. We're going to be there with them, not just for the days but the weeks and the months and the years to come," Beshear said.
MSNBC quoted a local resident who witnessed the crash.
"Two helicopters just disappeared out of the sky. There was a large flash," Nick Tomaszewski said, adding that another helicopter circled the area for about 30 minutes before ambulances arrived.
There have been multiple crashes of US military aircraft in recent years, including another involving a Black Hawk that killed two Tennessee National Guardsmen during a training flight Alabama in February.
Four US Marines were killed during NATO exercises in Norway last year when their V-22B Osprey aircraft went down, possibly after hitting a mountain, investigators said.
And two US Navy pilots were rescued after their T-45C Goshawk jet crashed during a training exercise in a residential neighborhood near Fort Worth, Texas in 2021. The pilots ejected before the plane went down.
The 101st Airborne Division is the US Army's only air assault division. Nicknamed the "Screaming Eagles," it was activated in August 1942 and gained renown during World War II in the D-Day landings and the Battle of the Bulge.
More recently the division has seen action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
© Agence France-Presse
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'Trickle-down fantasy': AOC rips House GOP energy bill as everything oil lobbyists could want
March 30, 2023
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed a fossil fuels-friendly bill they are calling the Low Energy Costs Act of 2023. If the bill passes, it will face two major hurdles: the U.S. Senate (where Democrats increased their small effective majority in the 2022 midterms) and Democratic President Joe Biden.
House Democrats who are critical of House Resolution 1, a.k.a. the Low Energy Costs Act of 2023, have another name for it: the "Polluters Over People Act." And one of the progressive Democrats who is being especially vehement in her condemnation is Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez (D-New York), who began serving her third term in January.
Speaking on the House floor on Tuesday, March 28, AOC declared, "The central argument and logic of this bill is that if you give big oil everything they want, then perhaps they will lower our gas prices. It's a form of trickle-down fantasy that just will not make life easier for everyday Americans."
The Bronx/Queens congresswoman went on to say that fossil fuel companies "already have thousands of unused permits on public lands, and yet, they want even more. This is not a problem of supply, it is a problem of greed and abuse of market power." And she slammed the bill as having "everything that" an "oil lobbyist" could "want."
AOC is not the only well-known Democrat who has been slamming the Low Energy Costs Act. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has said that if HR1 passes in the House, it will be "dead on arrival" in the U.S. Senate. And Biden has said he would veto HR1 if it went to his desk for approval.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a statement condemning HR1 and warning that it "would raise costs for American families by repealing household energy rebates and rolling back historic investments to increase access to cost-lowering clean energy technologies."
OMB warned, "Instead of protecting American consumers, it would pad oil and gas company profits —already at record levels — and undercut our public health and environment."
On March 27, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) published, on its website, a listicle laying some reasons to oppose the bill — which, according to NPCA, would "gut existing environmental laws" and "worsen climate change."
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Favoring right wing Christians, Texas judge voids ACA’s mandate that insurance cover full cost of HIV drugs including PrEP
March 30, 2023
A Texas federal judge has voided Obamacare's requirements that insurance companies cover the full costs of life-saving HIV prevention and treatment drugs, claiming requiring Christian employers to do so violates their rights under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
In that same ruling on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, who has a lengthy history of deciding against LGBTQ people and in favor of the far Christian right, also voided requirements insurance companies, under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), cover other life-saving medications and procedures including cancer screenings, mental health services, and diabetes treatments, although for reasons unrelated to religion.
"In September," Reuters reports, "O’Connor held that the US Preventive Services Task Force, which determines what qualifies as a covered preventive measure under the ACA, can’t validly do so because its members aren’t subject to Senate confirmation and their recommendations aren’t reviewed by constitutionally appointed government officials."
Thursday's decision is an extension of Judge O'Connor's September ruling, in the same case, Braidwood Mgmt., Inc. v. Becerra.
Slate's legal expert Mark Joseph Stern calls Judge O'Connor's ruling "nothing short of catastrophic to the U.S. health care system."
"Millions of Americans, including many pregnant women, will have to forgo basic care if it is upheld," he adds.
The case was brought by Dr. Steven Hotze, a far-right Republican activist and religious extremist who has attacked the LGBTQ community for decades. Last fall The New York Times identified Braidwood Management's owner as "Dr. Steven F. Hotze, a well-known Republican donor and doctor from Houston, has previously challenged the Affordable Care Act on other grounds."
The Times reports in that September ruling in this same case, Judge O'Connor wrote: “The PrEP mandate substantially burdens the religious exercise of Braidwood’s owners.” O'Connor, The Times added, wrote "that Dr. Hotze believes that covering PrEP drugs 'facilitates and encourages homosexual behavior, intravenous drug use and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.'"
HIV is not exclusive to people who engage in same-sex intimate relations, drug use, or sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.
In 2015, Dr. Hotze compared same-sex marriage to the Holocaust and gay people to murderers, defending his belief that Texas should ignore the impending Supreme Court ruling that found same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage.
Just two weeks ago Dr. Hotze was "kicked out of a state senate session," The Daily Beast reported, "after he called transgender people 'pedophiles.'"
"Major medical and patient groups," Bloomberg Law reported on Thursday, "had argued that a nationwide order would jeopardize health care for millions of Americans, leading to preventable deaths and higher costs for treating diseases that could have been detected earlier by free screenings."
According to Forbes, Judge O'Connor's ruling on Thursday also voids required coverage for other "preventive services," including "screenings for such cancers as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer and lung cancer, diabetes screenings, various screenings and interventions for pregnant people, statin use to prevent cardiovascular disease, vision screening for children and more."
And yet, Judge O'Connor's decision tossed "other arguments that tried to invalidate the contraceptive mandate in the ACA, so coverage for contraception will remain unaffected by Thursday’s ruling."
The Biden Administration is expected to appeal, and according to Forbes because insurance policies are generally in effect for a calendar year, it's unlikely any possible changes would be implemented before January.
Meanwhile, Judge O’Connor in 2019 overturned protections written into ObamaCare for transgender people, ruling they violate the religious rights of healthcare providers who hold religious beliefs that oppose the existence of transgender people.
Three years earlier, in 2016, O’Connor – who at that point already had a record of opposing LGBT rights – handed down a 38-page order in a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on behalf of 13 states, blocking the Obama administration from enforcing its guidance that said public schools should allow transgender students to use restroom and locker rooms based on their gender identity.
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