Aaron Crawford helped Kentuckians clean up from historic flooding. The teen's mysterious death was just added to the flood death count.
CBSN
The mysterious death of a high school athlete who spent days helping his fellow eastern Kentuckians clean up from historic flooding has added a new layer of grief to the tragedy.
On Wednesday, Aaron "Mick" Crawford was counted as the 38th person to die as a result of flash flooding that swept away homes and swallowed communities last month in the Appalachian region. The teen's death was a crushing loss, said Perry County Sheriff Joe Engle, his friend and pastor.
"He was just a joy to be around," the sheriff said Wednesday.
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.