Houston cleanup has little crime, lots of helping hands

Houston cleanup has little crime, lots of helping hands

HOUSTON

After riding out Hurricane Harvey in a motel and waiting an agonizing week for the waist-high waters to recede, 71-year-old Bob Janak returned to his wrecked home for the first time to find it swarming with people.

They weren’t thieves or looters. They were volunteers who took it upon themselves to clean out the modest ranch house in outlying Magnolia, pushing wheelbarrows of sodden carpet and drywall and spreading armfuls of soggy, salvageable belongings on his front lawn.

“I tried to help out, but it was pretty obvious I was just getting in the way,” Janak said with a laugh. “They are amazing, I tell you. I’m so touched.”

For many people in the Houston area, the real takeaway from Harvey has not been misery, but kindness. The crime and opportunism that often follows big storms has been a notable non-factor, at least for now. That stands in contrast to the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, when reports of gunfire, looting and violence proliferated in New Orleans.

House passes $7.9 billion Harvey aid bill

WASHINGTON

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed $7.9 billion in Hurricane Harvey disaster relief as warring Republicans and Democrats united behind help for victims of that storm as an ever more powerful new hurricane bore down on Florida.

The 419-3 vote sent the aid package – likely the first of several – to the Senate in hopes of sending the bill to President Donald Trump before dwindling federal disaster reserves run out at the end of this week.

The first installment in Harvey aid is to handle the immediate emergency needs and replenish Federal Emergency Management Agency reserves in advance of Hurricane Irma, which is barreling through the Caribbean toward Florida.

US won’t punish United over incident

Federal officials have decided not punish United Airlines over an infamous incident in which a passenger was dragged off an overcrowded plane.

The Transportation Department said it found no evidence that United violated the passenger’s civil rights and not enough evidence that it violated rules regarding bumping passengers.

A department lawyer told United about the decision in a May 12 letter, but neither the agency nor the airline made the matter public. An advocacy group, Flyers Rights, released the letter Wednesday after obtaining it through an open-records request.

On April 9, airport security officers in Chicago dragged 69-year-old David Dao from a United Express plane. The airline said it needed room for four employees who were traveling to staff a flight the following morning.

Trump Jr. to speak privately today to Senate staff

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump’s oldest son was expected to meet privately today with a Senate committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, several senators said.

Donald Trump Jr.’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee will probably focus on a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer and others during the final stretches of last year’s campaign. Emails released in July show that Trump Jr. was told the session at Trump Tower in New York was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father, the Republican nominee.

Associated Press