Holder urges use of OD-reversal drug
Holder urges use of OD-reversal drug
WASHINGTON
Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday urged first-responders to use an overdose-reversal drug to help save lives amid a nationwide resurgence in heroin abuse, a public-health scourge claiming the lives of celebrities and young people alike.
When administered in a timely manner, the reversal drug commonly referred to as narcan can restore breathing to someone experiencing a heroin overdose.
Holder told a national conference of police department officials that he associates heroin with the drug problem of the 1950s and early 1960s, and “then it kind of went away.”
“But no question, it is an issue we have to deal with; it is something that is truly a national problem,” the attorney general said.
Firetruck rams eatery, injuring 15
MONTEREY PARK, Calif.
Two firetrucks heading to a burning home collided Wednesday in a Los Angeles suburb, sending one careening into a restaurant and injuring 15 people, including at least five firefighters.
One of the victims was in critical condition, officials said.
The crash on a busy commercial strip in Monterey Park left one truck embedded in the restaurant, with shattered glass and rubble heaped on the sidewalk. Chairs and tables were scattered inside.
Plane-search update
PERTH, Australia
A robotic submarine has completed its first full 16-hour mission scanning the floor of the Indian Ocean for wreckage of the missing Malaysian airliner after two previous missions were cut short by technical problems and deep water, authorities said today.
The Bluefin 21 had covered 35 square miles of the silt-covered sea bed off the west Australian coast in its first three missions, the search coordination center said today. While data collected by the sub from its latest mission, which ended overnight, still was being analyzed, nothing of note had yet been discovered, the center said.
Twelve planes and 11 ships were to join what could be the final day of the surface ocean search for debris from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.
Portland plans reservoir flush
PORTLAND, Ore.
Portland officials are once again preparing to flush millions of gallons of treated water because someone urinated in a city reservoir.
Water Bureau Administrator David Shaff said 38 million gallons will be discarded after a 19-year-old was videotaped in the act Wednesday.
Three years ago, the city drained a 7.5-million-gallon reservoir at the same Mount Tabor location in southeast Portland.
The open reservoirs hold water that’s already been treated and goes directly into mains for distribution to customers.
The urine poses little risk — animals routinely deposit waste without creating a public-health crisis — but Shaff said he doesn’t want to serve water that was deliberately tainted.
Flight teacher who was on CNN is fired
TORONTO
A Canadian flight-simulator business fired an instructor who figured prominently in CNN’s coverage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, saying he showed up late to his regular job and “shamed Canadians” by dressing like a teenager.
uFly company owner Claudio Teixeira said he fired Mitchell Casado on Wednesday in part for refusing to dress professionally and making Canadians “look very bad all over the world.”
Casado’s relaxed style of jeans and plaid shirts attracted wide attention during CNN’s constant coverage of the search for the missing flight.
Associated Press