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An explosion at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh left dozens injured or trapped under the rubble Monday, with emergency workers on site trying to rescue them, officials said. There are no confirmed fatalities at the Clairton Coke Works, said Abigail Gardner, director of communications for Allegheny County. The explosion sent black smoke spiralling into the midday sky in the Monongahela Valley, a region synonymous with the state for more than a century. It felt like thunder, Zachary Buday, a construction worker near the scene, told WTAE-TV. Shook the scaffold, shook my chest, and shook the building, and then when we saw the dark smoke coming up from the steel mill and put two and two together, and it’s like something bad happened. Allegheny County Emergency Services said a fire at the plant started around 10:51 a.m. and that it has transported five people. The agency did not provide any more details on those people transported. An Allegheny County emergency services spokesperson, Kasey Reigner, said dozens were injured and the county was sending 15 ambulances, on top of the ambulances supplied by local emergency response agencies. Air quality concerns and health warnings The plant, a massive industrial facility along the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, is considered the largest coking operation in North America and is one of four major U.S. Steel plants in Pennsylvania that employ several thousand workers. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who formerly served as the mayor of nearby Braddock, called the explosion absolutely tragic and vowed to support steelworkers in the aftermath. I grieve for these families, Fetterman said. I stand with the steelworkers. The Allegheny County Health Department said it is monitoring the explosion and advised residents within 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) of the plant to remain indoors, close all windows and doors, set air conditioning systems to recirculate, and avoid drawing in outside air, such as using exhaust fans. It said its monitors have not detected levels of soot or sulfur dioxide above federal standards. The plant converts coal to coke, a key component in the steel-making process. According to the company, it produces 4.3 million tons (3.9 million metric tons) of coke annually and has approximately 1,400 workers. The plant has a long history of pollution concerns In recent years, the Clairton plant has been dogged by concerns about pollution. In 2019, it agreed to settle a 2017 lawsuit for $8.5 million. Under the settlement, the company agreed to spend $6.5 million to reduce soot emissions and noxious odors from the Clairton coke-making facility. The company also faced other lawsuits over pollution from the Clairton facility, including ones accusing the company of violating clean air laws after a 2018 fire damaged the facilitys sulfur pollution controls. In 2018, a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton coke works plant caused $40 million in damage. The fire damaged pollution control equipment and led to repeated releases of sulfur dioxide, according to a lawsuit. Sulfur dioxide is a colorless, pungent byproduct of fossil fuel combustion that can make it hard to breathe. In the wake of the fire, Allegheny County warned residents to limit outdoor activities, with residents saying for weeks afterward that the air felt acidic, smelled like rotten eggs and was hard to breathe. In February, a problem with a battery at the plant led to a buildup of combustible material that ignited, causing an audible boom, the Allegheny County Health Department said. Two workers who got material in their eyes received first aid treatment at a local hospital but were not seriously injured. Last year, the company agreed to spend $19.5 million in equipment upgrades and $5 million on local clean air efforts and programs as part of settling a federal lawsuit filed by Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment and the Allegheny County Health Department. The fire at the Clairton plant knocked out pollution controls at its Mon Valley plants, but U.S. Steel continued to run them anyway, environmental groups said. The lawsuits accused the steel producer of more than 12,000 violations of its air pollution permits. Environmental group calls for an investigation David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, another environmental group that has sued U.S. Steel over pollution, said there needed to be a full, independent investigation into the causes of this latest catastrophe and a re-evaluation as to whether the Clairton plant is fit to keep operating. In June, U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel announced they had finalized a historic partnership, a deal that gives the U.S. government a say in some matters and comes a year and a half after the Japanese company first proposed its nearly $15 billion buyout of the iconic American steelmaker. The pursuit by Nippon Steel for the Pittsburgh-based company was buffeted by national security concerns and presidential politics in a premier battleground state, dragging out the transaction for more than a year after U.S. Steel shareholders approved it. Clairton Mayor Richard Lattanzi said his heart goes out to the victims of Monday explosion. The mill is such a big part of Clairton, he said. Its just a sad day for Clairton. Marc Levy, Michael Casey, and Patrick Whittle, Associated Press Associated Press reporters Holly Ramer and Beatrice Dupuy contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump said Monday that hes deploying the National Guard across Washington and taking over the citys police department in the hopes of reducing crime, even as the citys mayor has noted that crime is falling in the nations capital. The Republican president, who said he was formally declaring a public safety emergency, compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others. Trump also said at his news briefing that his administration has started removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks. We’re getting rid of the slums, too, Trump said, adding that the U.S. would not lose its cities and that Washington was just a start. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will be taking over responsibility for Washington’s metro police department, he said, while also complaining about potholes and graffiti in the city and calling them embarrassing. For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement agenda after his aggressive push to stop illegal border crossings. But the move involves at least 500 federal law enforcement officials as well as the National Guard, raising fundamental questions about how an increasingly emboldened federal government will interact with its state and local counterparts. Combating crime The president has used his social media and White House megaphones to message that his administration is tough on crime, yet his ability to shape policy might be limited outside of Washington, which has a unique status as a congressionally established federal district. Nor is it clear how his push would address the root causes of homelessness and crime. Trump said he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to deploy members of the National Guard. About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nations capital as part of the Trump administrations effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday. More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are also contributing officers. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didnt immediately have a comment Monday morning. The National Guard Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the effectiveness of using the Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years. Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon. I just think thats not the most efficient use of our Guard, she said Sunday on MSNBC’s The Weekend, acknowledging it is “the presidents call about how to deploy the Guard. Bowser was making her first public comments since Trump started posting about crime in Washington last week. She noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. Trump’s weekend posts depicted the district as one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.” For Bowser, Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false. Focusing on homelessness Trump in a Sunday social media post had emphasized the removal of Washingtons homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go. The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY, Trump wrote Sunday. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you dont have to move out. Were going to put you in jail where you belong. Last week, the Republican president directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option to extend as needed. On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service assigned more than 120 officers and agents to assist in Washington. Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was ridiculous and the city was unsafe, after the recent assault of a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency. Crime statistics Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago. Trump offered no details in Truth Social posts over the weekend about possible new actions to address crime levels he argues are dangerous for citizens, tourists and workers alike. The White House declined to offer additional details about Monday’s announcement. The police department and the mayors office did not respond to questions about what Trump might do next. The president criticized the district as full of tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as DOGE. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others. This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country, Trump said Wednesday. He called Bowser a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances. Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining. It could face steep pushback. Bowser acknowledged that the law allows the president to take more control over the city’s police, but only if certain conditions are met. None of those conditions exist in our city right now,” she sai. We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, were watching our crime numbers go down. David Klepper, Associated Press Associated Press writers Ashraf Khalil, Alanna Durkin Richer, and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
Commercial fishing that recently resumed in a vast protected area of the Pacific Ocean must halt once again, after a judge in Hawaii sided this week with environmentalists challenging a Trump administration rollback of federal ocean protections. The remote Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument is home to turtles, marine mammals and seabirds, which environmental groups say will get snagged by longline fishing, an industrial method involving baited hooks from lines 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) or longer. President Donald Trump’s executive order to allow this and other types of commercial fishing in part of the monument changed regulations without providing a process for public comment and rulemaking and stripped core protections from the monument, the groups argued in a lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Micah W. J. Smith granted a motion by the environmentalists on Friday. The ruling means boats catching fish for sale will need to immediately cease fishing in waters between 50 and 200 nautical miles (93 kilometers to 370 kilometers) around Johnston Atoll, Jarvis Island and Wake Island, said Earthjustice, an environmental law organization representing the plaintiffs. U.S. Justice Department attorneys representing the government did not immediately return an email message seeking comment on Saturday. Trump has said the U.S. should be the worlds dominant seafood leader, and on the same day of his April executive order, he issued another one seeking to boost commercial fishing by peeling back regulations and opening up harvesting in previously protected areas. President George W. Bush created the marine monument in 2009. It consists of about 500,000 square miles (1.3 million square kilometers) in the remote central Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii. President Barack Obama expanded it in 2014. Soon after Trump’s executive order, the National Marine Fisheries Service sent a letter to fishing permit holders giving them the green light to fish commercially in the monument’s boundaries, Earthjustice’s lawsuit says. Fishing resumed within days, the group said. Government attorneys say the fisheries services letter merely notified commercial fishers of a change that had already taken place through Trumps authority to remove the prohibition on commercial fishing in certain areas. Earthjustice challenged that letter, and by granting the motion in their favor, the federal judge found the government had chosen not to defend its letter on the merits and forfeited that argument. Smith also ruled against the government’s other defenses, that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the letter and that the court lacked jurisdiction over the matter. David Henkin, an Earthjustice attorney, said Smith’s ruling requires the government to go through a process to determine what kind of fishing, and under what conditions, can happen in monument waters in a way that wouldn’t destroy the area. Members of Hawaiis longline fishing industry say they have made numerous gear adjustments and changes over the years, such as circle hooks, to avoid that. The lawsuit says allowing commercial fishing in the monument expansion would also harm the cultural, spiritual, religious, subsistence, educational, recreational, and aesthetic interests of a group of Native Hawaiian plaintiffs who are connected genealogically to the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific. Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press
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