Latest news with #Fondren
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Aircraft firefighting spring session starts May 1
Apr. 30—MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College will be hosting firefighters from throughout the Pacific Northwest at the spring session of the Aircraft Rescue Firefighting Program beginning May 1. College officials said that means people will be seeing smoke, sometimes a big black plume of it, from the area west of the Grant County International Airport. Tiffany Fondren, BBCC communications coordinator, said the program combines classroom instruction with training exercises. "Firefighting agencies will contract with the program to certify and re-certify," Fondren said. The facility has onsite simulators that allow firefighters to experience conditions that are as close to a genuine emergency as possible, she said. The passenger jet shell can be configured to reflect the chaos that would follow a crash and filled with smoke to make it even more challenging. Fuselage sections with doors can be set up to give firefighters experience getting damaged doors open. A fuselage section can be set aflame to mimic an engine fire. "It's basically very realistic, even though it's a controlled experience," Fondren said. Firefighters will be training through May 29, she said, and in previous springs, people have seen the smoke and thought it was a fire at the GCIA or a wildfire in the area. During May, however, it's likely it will actually be firefighting crews in training, she said.
Axios
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Reports: White House ordered firing of 2 DOJ prosecutors
Two career Department of Justice officials were fired in one-line emails stating the dismissals were "on behalf of" President Trump, multiple outlets report. Why it matters: Trump has long railed against what he's called the "weaponization" of the justice system. Now, the White House, "in coordination with the Department of Justice, has dismissed more than 50 U.S. Attorneys and Deputies in the past few weeks," per an emailed statement from press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The dismissals of Adam Schleifer in Los Angeles and Reagan Fondren in Memphis late last week underscore " aggressive" White House efforts targeting U.S. attorney offices across multiple states, per the New York Times, which confirmed earlier reports on the firings, citing to two anonymous sources that Axios could not independently confirm. Catch up quick: The Daily Memphian first reported that Fondren had been fired on Thursday "in a one-line email" from her position as acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee and also as a DOJ employee. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced in a statement Friday that Joe Murphy would serve as interim U.S. Attorney for the district, saying she had "worked with President Trump to ensure that Memphis' chief federal prosecutor is competent, tough-on-crime, and pro-law enforcement." Representatives for Blackburn's office did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening on Fondren's firing. Schleifer, who criticized Trump when he ran as a Democrat for a congressional seat in New York 2020, was fired in a similarly brief email on Friday, the Los Angeles Times first reported. The NYT reported Schleifer was fired as federal prosecutor as he worked on the prosecution of Andrew Wiederhorn, a Trump donor and former CEO of Fat Brands, which owns fast-food chains Fatburger and Johnny Rockets. Wiederhorn is facing federal charges that a DOJ statement alleges "relates to a scheme to conceal $47 million in distributions he received in the form of shareholder loans from the IRS, FAT's minority shareholders, and the broader investing public." What they're saying: "The American people deserve a judicial branch full of honest arbiters of the law who want to protect democracy, not subvert it," Leavitt said in her statement that was first shared with the NYT, without elaborating further on the connection between the firings of the prosecutors, who are part of the executive branch of the government, and the judiciary.
Associated Press
28-02-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Tennessee gynecologist charged with performing unnecessary medical procedures
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee gynecologist was arrested Friday and accused of performing unnecessary procedures on patients with re-used medical devices held under unsanitary conditions. Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, 44, is charged with enticing four people to travel interstate to engage in illegal sexual activity, adulteration of medical devices, misbranding of medical devices and health care fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Memphis said. Court records did not show if Kumar has a lawyer to represent him on the charges or speak on his behalf. There was no immediate response to a phone message left with his office. Kumar's medical practice is located in Memphis. From September 2019 to June 2024, Kumar is alleged to have sexually abused women by conducting unnecessary medical procedures with devices held under unsanitary conditions and re-used on patients when they were required to be thrown away or properly reprocessed. Kumar did not tell patients that he was re-using the devices, prosecutors said, and also billed Medicare and Medicaid as if the procedures were necessary and as if he had used a new or properly reprocessed device each time. Acting U.S. Attorney Fondren said Kumar was consistently the top-paid provider in Tennessee for Medicare and Medicaid for hysteroscopy biopsies, which allow doctors to look inside the uterus. Federal authorities said there could be more patients affected by Kumar's alleged acts. 'The allegations indicate that Kumar acted as a predator in a white coat and used the cover of conducting medical examinations to put his patients at risk and enrich himself,' Fondren said in a statement.
