"Live from NPR news in Washington.
in Western Columbia where a strong earthquake has left more than 110 people dead. The
“U.S. Geological Survey says the quake had a magnitude of 7.4. It struck a remote region of the”
country yesterday and was felt as far away as the capital Bogota. Soldiers are helping rescue teams go through the debris of damaged and toppled buildings, numerous aftershocks are also reported. There are election primaries in several states today, in Minnesota, Democratic and Republican candidates are competing in a Senate primary. That's where Democratic Senator Amy Cloishar is seeking her party's nomination for governor. Democratic Congresswoman Angie Craig,
a moderate, is running for the party's Senate nomination against the state's lieutenant governor,
Penny Peggy Flanagan, a progressive. In South Carolina, 10 Republicans are competing for the
party's Senate nomination for the seat held by the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Among the candidates in the special primary is Graham's sister Darlin. She was appointed by the state's governor
“to fill the remaining months of her brother's term. The congressional budget office is projecting”
the federal deficit will top $2 trillion this year. NPR Scott Horsley says that's more read-in than forecasters were predicting six months ago. With about a month and a half left to go on the fiscal year, the congressional budget office predicts the annual deficit will grow to $2.1 trillion. Income and payroll tax collections are up this year, compared to last, but government spending is grown even faster. Meanwhile, corporate tax receipts are down
from a year ago, and tariff revenues are well short of earlier forecast after the Supreme Court struck down many of the president's import taxes. Spending on social security and Medicare
has grown with an aging population, interest payments have also jumped by more than $100 billion
this year because of higher interest rates and the ballooning federal debt. Scott Horsley,
“in Piano, is Washington. President Trump is scheduled to visit Ohio today,”
Connor Morris with the idea stream public media says the president will attend a high school sports competition known as the Patriot Games. With 120 high school athletes, one boy and one girl from each state and territory, the event has drawn comparison to the hunger games books and movies. The Patriot Games are taking place at a private boarding school in rural Ashtabula County. County Commissioner Casey Couselowski, a Republican, says the games and Trump's visit are good
for the area. The fact that these games are happening here really and with the young athletes that participating in the focus should be on the athletes. The event is organized by Freedom 250, a Trump backed public private partnership that also organized the UFC fight on the White House lawn and June. For NPR news, I'm Connor Morris in Cleveland. This is NPR news from Washington. President Trump has signed an executive order that alters the way in which children in the
U.S. are vaccinated against infectious diseases. It calls for reducing the number of childhood vaccines recommended by the federal government. It also calls for breaking up a shot that's now given as a single vaccination for measles, mumps, and rebella. In addition, the order calls on the justice department to pressure states to reduce the number of vaccines required to attend school. The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics says the order needlessly spreads
uncertainty, fear, and confusion. A new report sits a lack of safety procedures as partially to blame for last year's deadly explosion at a steel plant in Pennsylvania to employees at the U.S. steel plant near Pittsburgh were killed in the blast. Nearly a dozen others were injured as Reed Frazier reports. The final report by the chemical safety and hazard investigation board found that the blast occurred when workers were conducting maintenance on a cast iron valve
that was over 70 years old. The workers used pressurized water to clean out the valve, even though the company had no formal procedure for doing so. This resulted in an excessive pressure buildup which caused a valve failure that one worker described to the board as a pop. Gas rushed out of the failed valve and exploded. The safety board found that had U.S. steel developed formal instructions for how to do the procedure as recommended by industry standards.
The accident could have been prevented. For NPR News, I'm Reed Frazier in Pittsburgh. I'm Dave Madingway NPR News in Washington. 50 years ago Congress set out to protect coal miners from black lung disease. Today it's back at rates not seen in half a century. These guys are being treated like disposable widgets, not human beings. On the Sunday story, why coal miners and Appalachia are getting sicker faster. Listen now to the Sunday story from the U.S. podcast on the NPR App.
