Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning. One of the deadliest avalanches in California's history leaves at least eight skiers dead.
This slide was around the size of a football field, so it was absolutely massive.
San Francisco's KQED explains how the tragedy unfolded. An ecological crisis hits the Potomac River. The Washington Post tells us why Trump and state officials are blaming each other.
Chapter 2: What happened during California's deadliest avalanche?
And why one sport at the Winter Games is still men's only. It's Thursday, February 19th. I'm Cecilia Ley, and this is Apple News Today. This past Sunday, 15 skiers in Northern California set off into the Sierra Mountains for a backcountry trip. In the end, only six came back alive. Yesterday, rescue teams said that one remains missing and is presumed dead.
Sarah Wright is the outdoors engagement reporter for KQED who's been covering the story.
On Tuesday at around 11.30 a.m., first responders in Tahoe received notification, a 911 call essentially, from skiers who had been in an avalanche up near Donner Summit. They were out on a three-day trip to one of the backcountry huts back there and were returning on their final day when they got caught in the big slide.
Meteorologists have predicted a pair of storms would bring treacherous conditions to Northern California, and up to eight feet of snow could ultimately fall. An avalanche watch was issued on Sunday, the same day the skiers started their journey. Then, that watch was upgraded to a warning only hours before it hit. Wright explained the weather dynamics that led to the disaster.
When you have sort of this long dry spell that creates a melted out slippery surface and then you dump a bunch of snow on top of that, that can create really risky conditions. So that's not even to mention the wind being a factor and the buildup of this snow and these whiteout conditions that can make the hillsides even steeper and more dangerous.
Those conditions have also complicated things for first responders who use snow cats, vehicles with tank-like treads, and individuals on skis to navigate the harsh terrain. California's Nevada County Sheriff Shannon Moon spoke about what rescuers are facing at a press conference on Wednesday.
Extreme weather conditions, I would say, is an understatement. Lots of snow, gale force winds, winds making it impossible to see. So it was very much a slow and steady pace going with snow cats, skiers going up into the area, which is still considered a very high danger for avalanches.
And Placer County Sheriff Wayne Wu told reporters one of the deceased was the spouse of a rescue team member.
So, as you can understand, this has not only been challenging for our community, it's been a challenging rescue, but it's also been challenging emotionally for our team and our organization.
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Chapter 3: What were the conditions leading up to the avalanche?
About a month ago, a 60-year-old sewage line broke in Maryland, near the D.C. area. It's become one of the worst spills in U.S. history, sending E. coli levels in the water to dangerously high levels. Yesterday, the D.C. Mayor, Muriel Bowser, declared a public emergency and asked for federal assistance. Dana Hedgepeth has been following the story for The Washington Post.
There was a collapse of a very large pipeline, and it runs along a highway, a parkway, just off the Beltway in Maryland. It's 54 miles long. It's a sewer line. It's about 60 years old, and it carries up to 60 million gallons of wastewater daily from Virginia, Maryland, to the wastewater treatment plant in D.C., where it's treated.
While officials were able to stop the flow into the river within a week, DC Water, the utility that owns and operates the pipeline, said that repairs could take more than a month. President Trump has said the disaster relief agency FEMA will be dispatched, but he's at odds with Maryland Governor Wes Moore over who's really responsible.
He's not doing the job. They got to do it. And I'm going to have to get the federal government involved in getting it fixed because he can't fix anything.
The sewage pipe that he is talking about is on federal land. And over these past four weeks, the Trump-Vance administration has failed to act. This federal administration has been shirking its responsibilities and putting people's health at risk.
Trump has also pointed fingers at other local and state officials in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia for the spill. Moore, a frequent critic of the president, says Trump's blame of Maryland is politically motivated. While the pipe broke in Maryland, it's federally regulated and under the oversight of the EPA. D.C.
Water said the spill underscored the risks of aging infrastructure and described it as a shared responsibility. The Potomac Riverkeeper Network, an environmental nonprofit, told the publication The Hill that the sewer line was already known to be needing repairs.
Hedgepeth told us that ultimately it's a complicated problem and the discourse after the pipeline failure is indicative of the kind of finger pointing that can happen in the nation's capital.
Washington is the best at playing the blame game. So every agency is at the table, we've been told, and is working to try to figure it out. They've been able to stem the spill so that it's not overflowing at the rate that it was.
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Chapter 4: How did the rescue teams respond to the avalanche incident?
And finally, for chicken wing lovers, it's a debate that has raged on for years. Is a wing a wing if it has no bones? A man in Illinois filed a lawsuit in 2023 against the restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings. He had ordered their boneless version and expected a traditional wing deboned, but that's not what he got.
He argued the chain shouldn't be allowed to call them boneless, saying they're really more like nuggets than wings. A U.S. district judge wasn't buying that argument and ruled Buffalo Wild Wings can keep the boneless designation on their menu. The judge dismissed the idea they were being deceptive, saying that diners don't order chicken fingers and expect to be served actual fingers.
You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
The Hollywood Reporter pulls the curtain back on a shady network of websites that are attacking celebrities involved in notable and highly public scandals and how some of the false claims posted online are nearly impossible to take down. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.