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Louisiana teachers' union concerned about educators' future; Supreme Court hears arguments in Trump immunity case; court issues restraining order against fracking waste-storage facility; landmark NE agreement takes a proactive approach to CO2 pipeline risks.

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Speaker Johnson accuses demonstrating students of getting support from Hamas. TikTok says it'll challenge the ban. And the Supreme Court dives into the gray area between abortion and pregnancy healthcare, and into former President Trump's broad immunity claims.

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The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken, and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Oil Train Blast “Could Have Been Right By My House”

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Friday, February 20, 2015   

RICHMOND, Va. — A witness who fled Monday's train derailment and massive fire in West Virginia says he can't help but wonder now if he and his neighbors are safe from trains carrying crude oil.

Iraq War veteran Brandon Truman lives in Boomer, W. Va., directly across the river from where the tanker cars exploded, and next to a separate set of railroad tracks. He says after one blast, he felt the heat and the force on his skin - even on the other side of the wide Kanawha River. Truman says the mushroom cloud from that explosion reminded him of combat.

"They have 500-pound bombs they'd drop when we'd call them in. It was that big," says Truman. "That's what you think about afterwards - what's going to come through here next? If it had been on this side of the river, it would have been right by our house."

A day after the accident the fires were still burning, and casting off huge clouds of greasy, bitter smoke.

Truman and a group of his neighbors - most of whom also had to flee the previous day - stand in the snow and watch. He is tall, dressed in Army camouflage pants and a sweatshirt. Truman works in the natural gas industry, driving trucks carrying equipment, gas and sand in the Marcellus fields. He says his work makes him more aware.

And he doesn't think the railroad tank cars offer enough protection.

"There was supposed to be a new type of tanker that, if they do derail, there's more safety precautions and stuff like that," he says. "But obviously, you can't stop all of it. You never know what's going to happen, or what even caused it."

Truman says the worst thing was not knowing what was on the train.

"We ran because we didn't know," he says. "The most frightening part was probably not knowing what was in the tanks. If it had been propane or natural gas, or some kind of acid or something like that, it would have been a thousand times worse."

The railroad companies say the voluntary upgrades they've made to oil tankers have added to their safety. But critics cite a series of accidents in their calls for greater precautions – including an explosive derailment and fire last April on the same line, which forced the evacuation of downtown Lynchburg.



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