US News
Amtrak Derailment: At Least 50 Hurt in Montana
At least three people were killed and 50 others were injured after an Amtrak train derailed in Montana on Saturday afternoon, setting off a frantic response by rescuers who scrambled to extricate passengers from cars, the authorities said.
Amtrak said that eight cars on an Empire Builder train had derailed at about 4 p.m. local time near Joplin, Mont., which is about 200 miles north of Helena. About 141 passengers and 16 crew members were on board, “with injuries reported,” Amtrak said in a statement.
The train consisted of two locomotives and 10 cars.
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from The New York Times
“Amtrak is working with the local authorities to transport injured passengers, and safely evacuate all other passengers,” the rail service said in a statement.
The Liberty County Sheriff’s Office said that three people were confirmed dead.
Amanda Frickel, the disaster and emergency services coordinator for Hill County, Mont., said in an interview that “well over” 50 people had been injured. The train was heading west when it derailed, she said.
She said that rescuers from six counties were responding to the scene and that as many as five hospitals were on standby to receive injured passengers. There were also a number of medical helicopters standing by, she said.
“Everybody who is alive has been extricated from the wreck,” Ms. Frickel said.
Officials had evacuated survivors to two separate sites and were doing a head count. Emergency responders planned to put people up in hotels once their medical needs had been seen to.
“Every county around is assisting,” said Sheriff Donna Whitt of Toole County, Mont.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that it was launching a “go-team” to investigate the derailment.
Megan Vandervest, who was going to visit a friend in Seattle, boarded the train on Friday night from Minneapolis, where she lives.
On Saturday afternoon, she was asleep in the first car when she was jolted awake.
“My first thought was that we were derailing because, to be honest, I have anxiety and I had heard stories about trains derailing,” Ms. Vandervest said. “My second thought was that’s crazy. We wouldn’t be derailing. Like, that doesn’t happen.”
In Arizona, to vote in federal elections (President, the House, and the Senate) you are required to swear (under penalty of perjury) that you are a U.S. citizen…
But there is no proof requirement.
Official Arizona Secretary of State Citizenship Requirements for Voting:
The federal government relies on the attestation of the individual, the penalties for false statements, and the states’ efforts to cross-check information to maintain the integrity of the voter registration process (Source).
The process is largely based on the honor system.
The Associated Press recently reported this fact:
Source: https://apnews.com/article/arizona-voting-laws-citizenship-proof-50dafd68f8dd4af5cf669afa62efdf19
Currently, there is no national database or system that verifies the citizenship of voters directly. There is no guaranteed audit at the federal level specifically targeting “federal only” voters who have not provided proof of citizenship.
What about election audits? Wouldn’t non-citizen voters get caught?
Non-citizens in the country on parole awaiting an asylum hearing could potentially be identifiable in databases used for post-election audits, such as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which is designed to verify the immigration status of individuals (Source).
As for “gotaway” illegal immigrants who evaded entering in a documented fashion, it would be significantly more challenging to identify them in databases for the purposes of a post-election audit.
Since they have not been processed through official immigration channels, they would not have records in the same databases that document legal entries and immigration statuses. Therefore, they would not be easily identifiable through the standard verification processes used in post-election audits.
I’ve seen studies that claim non-citizen and Illegal Immigrant voting is extremely rare… What about those?
Studies such as those from the Brennan Center for Justice (link), indicate that non-citizen voting is extremely rare based on available data and the significant legal risks involved.
However, these studies rely on the analysis of documented cases and official records, which would not include undocumented individuals who evaded detection entirely.
For “gotaway” illegal immigrants, since they lack official records, there would be no straightforward method to audit their voting activity after an election. This is a limitation of the current verification systems, which are designed to prevent ineligible voting using the records available. The rarity of non-citizen voting cited in studies is based on the assumption that the risk of severe penalties, including deportation and imprisonment, serves as a strong deterrent against such actions.
In summary, while there are robust systems in place to deter and detect ineligible voting, the nature of undocumented entry into the country creates a gap in the ability to audit post-election voting activity for those individuals. The extent to which this occurs is unknown, and the studies available do not account for individuals without any official records.
All things considered, voting is only a small fraction of the overall concerns that Americans are expressing related to illegal immigration and asylum into the United States.
Gallup recently reported:
Quote from Gallup:
“For the third month in a row, immigration is the problem Americans name more than any other as the most important facing the U.S. While immigration has not ranked as the top problem often in Gallup’s monthly trend, it stands alone as the most politically polarizing issue in the past 25 years of Gallup’s measurement.
The record surge of migrants at the southern U.S. border in December brought even more focus on the issue — and while attempted crossings have eased slightly since then, they are expected to increase as spring continues. President Joe Biden’s approval rating for his handling of immigration has been persistently poor. With the presidential election about six months away and immigration top of mind, the issue remains a significant vulnerability for Biden as he seeks reelection.”
Source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/644570/immigration-named-top-problem-third-straight-month.aspx
Health
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, Has Been Diagnosed with Terminal Cancer
This follows his transfer to a medical facility in December
The new comes from a letter he wrote:
