Loretta Lynch may get a vote. More questions in Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore. And Blue Bell pulls all of its products.
It’s Tuesday, and here are the five things to know for your New Day.
LORETTA LYNCH
Deal in the works? Loretta Lynch may finally get a vote on her nomination. President Obama’s pick for attorney general has waited a record 165 days for Senate confirmation. Her nomination got sidetracked after Democrats cried foul over an abortion amendment in an anti-human trafficking bill. They have filibustered it ever since. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring Lynch’s nomination up for a vote until the filibuster was dropped. But yesterday evening, word spread that lawmakers were close to a deal on the abortion language. If all goes well, a confirmation vote on Lynch could just be days away.
FREDDIE GRAY
What happened in the van? That’s a central question in the case of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore man who died Sunday, a week after he was arrested on a weapons charge. Police said Gray ran, but did not resist when he was arrested and placed in a paddy wagon. “When Mr. Gray was placed inside that van, he was able to talk. He was upset. And when Mr. Gray was taken out of that van, he could not talk, and he could not breathe,” Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez told reporters yesterday. An autopsy shows he died from a severe spinal cord injury. How he could be so severely injured while in police custody is what the Baltimore police are investigating. The six officers involved in the arrest have been suspended, and protests were held yesterday outside the Baltimore Police Department.
MIGRANT DEATHS
Discrepancy: A cargo ship that tried to help migrants get off a sinking boat in the Mediterranean may have actually caused it to capsize. That’s what a spokeswoman for a U.N. refugee agency said earlier today. The spokeswoman, Carlotta Asami, said the survivors were “consistent” in saying that as the bigger cargo ship approached the migrant’s boat, a large wave was created that flipped the boat over. Asami’s account differs from what officials had earlier said, that the boat capsized as migrants rushed to one side of the vessel as the cargo ship neared. Only 28 survivors were rescued. It is estimated that as many as 850 people were on the boat.
BLUE BELL
A total recall: Look inside your refrigerator or freezer and see if you have any Blue Bell products on hand. If you do, don’t eat them. Blue Bell recalled its entire line of ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and other frozen snacks yesterday because they could be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Blue Bell also had Listeria-related recalls earlier this month and in March. Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Three people died in Kansas of Listeria over the past year in an outbreak that might be related to Blue Bell.
BIRD FLU
More cases: More than 5 million hens in Iowa will be euthanized after bird flu was found in a facility in the northwest part of the state. It adds to the growing number of bird flu cases in the country. About 8 million cases of the disease have been detected in 13 states since December. Most of the cases occurred on commercial poultry farms. Health officials stress that there’s little risk for transmission of the disease to humans. No human infections with the virus have ever been detected.
Those are your five biggies for the day. Here are a few others that are brewing and have the Internet buzzing.
Alright, alright, alright: Matthew McConaughey’s character from “Interstellar” reacts to the new “Star Wars” trailer.
Pug life: Brandy the pug shows off her snowboarding skills in the California snow.
On the loose: Traffic issues in Brussels sometime involve runaway zebras.
Get off the glass! A close encounter with a gorilla at the zoo.