By LEX DOIG, JAEHEE KIM and ADRIAN MANCERA COTA, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — The fire burned for about nine hours, billowing smoke and scorching the wooden trestles of a nearly 75-year-old railroad bridge that spans the Marys River in Corvallis, home to Oregon State University. Long after the flames died out, Michelle Emmons, a local environmental advocate, could still smell the noxious stench of charred creosote — a chemical preservative used to treat outdoor wooden structures.

The bridge is owned by Portland & Western Railroad, which says it made repairs after the 2022 fire. Emmons wanted more.

“It was most alarming to us to see that there were still rail cars that were going over the bridge,” said Emmons, who co-leads the Willamette Riverkeeper, a local environmental nonprofit. “It was only going to be a matter of time before there could possibly be an accident.”

That time came nearly three years later on Jan. 4, 2025, when the Corvallis bridge collapsed beneath a freight train.

One rail car fell into the river while another car dangled from the bridge and was partially submerged in water. Nearly 150,000 pounds of fertilizer spilled from the train into the river — a waterway already the focus of local environmental concerns.

Officials from Portland & Western Railroad declined to be interviewed but emailed a statement about the company’s actions after the fire. “Some rail, crossties and bridge caps needed to be replaced,” wrote company spokesperson Tom Ciuba. “It’s important to note that cosmetic appearance and the smell of creosote do not necessarily signify structural damage to rail bridges.”

An investigation by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University found railroad bridge safety across the U.S. is hamstrung by minimal government oversight and limited transparency. This leaves rail companies largely in control of inspecting and maintaining their own bridges — allowing them to keep most details about problems out of sight from the public.

This system differs starkly from the approximately 623,000 bridges carrying cars and trucks in the U.S., which must be regularly inspected, with results made public.

Among the Howard Center’s investigative findings:

Only six inspectors from the Federal Railroad Administration are responsible for oversight of safety for 70,000 railroad bridges.
Roughly 10% of U.S. railroads have not had their bridge management programs audited by the FRA, 15 years after the rule on Bridge Safety Standards went into effect.
Some larger railroads, owned by companies with billions of dollars in annual revenue, have neglected installation of critical but sometimes costly safety features.
Even government officials have difficulty getting information about railroad bridge inspections.

Portland & Western Railroad declined to allow Howard Center reporters to view bridge management plans or inspection records for the Corvallis bridge.

“Bridge inspection reports are not something we typically release to the public, as they are very technical in nature and should only be analyzed by bridge engineers,” wrote Ciuba.

Railroad bridge accidents across the U.S.

FRA data show 112 bridge-related railroad accidents dating back to 1976, or on average more than two incidents per year.

Mike Rush, safety director for the Association of American Railroads, said in every bridge-related derailment investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the cause of the bridge collapse was something other than bridge structure.

But a 2016 report from the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation found about three railroad bridge collapses per year over a seven-year period could be attributed directly to failing bridge structures. The inspector general cited FRA data that showed “structural failures of railroad bridges caused 21 train accidents between 2007 and 2014.”

The FRA data includes many railroad bridge incidents the NTSB never investigated. The safety board only investigates the most serious accidents – it did not investigate the collapse in Corvallis, Oregon. Of seven accidents involving railroad bridges the NTSB did respond to since 2010 include multiple examples where companies deferred important maintenance before derailments.

In September 2015, a BNSF train derailed while carrying ethanol, a highly flammable liquid, at a bridge near Lesterville, South Dakota. NTSB investigators found almost 50,000 gallons of ethanol leaked and caught fire, causing more than $1 million in damage. The safety board said “BNSF was able to defer maintenance on the track” which, along with “poor track structural support, increased the likelihood of rail failure.”

In October 2023, a BNSF train derailed in Colorado, striking a nearby bridge that partially collapsed and killed a truck driver on the interstate below. NTSB investigators found a broken rail near the bridge approach caused the accident, related to an incorrect weld on the rail.

After this incident, BNSF increased oversight of welding and began mandatory audits of every failed weld. In an email, BNSF said it meets all federal inspection requirements and the FRA has audited its bridge management plan “many times.”

In addition to allowing self-inspections of bridges, federal regulations require railroads to also oversee inspections of railroad track they own. But these track inspections do not have to be made public.

In March 2017, a Union Pacific freight train derailed near a bridge in Graettinger, Iowa. Fourteen tank cars released approximately 322,000 gallons of ethanol, sparking a fire and causing the evacuation of three homes. The NTSB faulted “Union Pacific Railroad’s inadequate track maintenance and inspection program and the FRA’s inadequate oversight of the application of federal track safety standards.”

In July 2020, a Union Pacific derailment near the Tempe Town Lake in Arizona prompted train cars to strike the bridge and cause a portion of it to collapse. A fire started and more than 2,000 gallons of flammable chemicals leaked.

The NTSB determined that the absence of an inner guard rail, a second set of rails which could have prevented the derailed train from crashing into the bridge, contributed to the severity of the derailment.

Union Pacific acknowledged, when questioned by the NTSB, it knew many bridges still needed the safety feature.

“The total number of bridges that require the inner guard rail is 635, and 218 do not have (the) inner guard rail installed,” Tomasz Gawronski, Director of Bridge Inspections for Union Pacific, said in his 2020 NTSB testimony.

Gawronski said money may have been a factor. “It’s a rather costly effort, you know, to install the inner guardrails.”

In 2020, Union Pacific reported operating revenues of $19.5 billion, with profits of $5.3 billion.

Company spokesperson Robynn Tysver wrote in an email that Union Pacific has approximately 16,900 bridges that are inspected twice a year. Tysver did not answer follow-up questions, including when asked if the 218 bridges that still needed inner guard rails in 2020 had since had them installed.

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Too few staff and resources

FRA rules require railroads to develop internal bridge management programs and conduct their own inspections. The FRA can audit these plans. But the audits are not occurring for all railroads.

FRA spokesperson Warren Flatau said the agency audited bridge management plans for 677 out of approximately 755 railroad companies under a 2010 rule. That leaves one in 10 railroads without audits under current regulations.

Flatau said the outstanding audits are all for Class III railroads, mostly smaller railroads with less revenue. He said smaller railroads change hands often, making oversight more difficult.

The FRA’s Bridge and Structures team now has just three bridge specialists and three structural engineers who oversee the railroads’ self-inspections of 69,509 railroad bridges the FRA is aware of.

“It’s shocking and just scary,” said Jared Cassity, a union leader with SMART TD, the largest railroad workers union in North America. “When you think about six people and the number of bridges that exist in the United States of America, you cannot adequately perform… the oversight.”

A new push for change

In 2015, Congress passed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which requires railroads to release a small amount of general information about any bridge to government or elected officials who formally request the information. The required information does not include the year the bridge was built or information about the condition of key parts of the bridge like its deck or supports.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said officials who made requests found records “were extremely redacted — so much so that it was almost a joke.”

She plans to introduce legislation this year to force transparency.

“We want to create a public database where residents are able to just readily obtain the information regarding the safety of the bridges in their communities,” Lee said.

Lee’s initial attempt at rail bridge safety reforms in 2024 stalled, which she attributes to influence from railroad companies and their powerful lobbyists.

“It is not an issue that impacts one type of district — blue districts or red districts. This is an issue of national safety, of public safety, all across the country,” she said.

Reporters Matthew Bird, Mackenzie Miller and Justin Patton contributed to this story. It was produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, an initiative of the Scripps Howard Foundation in honor of the late news industry executive and pioneer Roy W. Howard. For more, see https://cnsmaryland.org/off-the-rails/. Contact us at howardcenter@asu.edu or on X @HowardCenterASU.

By RIO YAMAT, Associated Press Airlines Writer

At the end of work trips, Nathan Miller goes home to a makeshift bedroom in his parents’ house in Virginia. The 29-year-old flight attendant is part of a PSA Airlines crew based in Philadelphia, but Miller says he can’t afford to live there.

He makes about $24,000 a year working full-time for the American Airlines subsidiary. Despite often staffing multiple flights a day, Miller commutes by plane between Virginia Beach and Philadelphia International Airport, a distance of about 215 miles.

“I’ve considered finding a whole new job. It’s not something that I want to do,” Miller, who joined PSA two years ago, said. “But it’s not sustainable.”

His situation isn’t unique. Frustrations among flight attendants at both regional and legacy airlines have been building for years over paychecks that many of them say don’t match the weight of what their jobs demand. Compounding the discontent over hourly wages is a long-standing airline practice of not paying attendants for the work they perform on the ground, like getting passengers on and off planes.

Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, holds placard during a demonstration at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Monday, August 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Air Canada’s flight attendants put a public spotlight on these simmering issues when about 10,000 of them walked off the job last weekend, forcing the airline to cancel more than 3,000 flights. The strike ended Tuesday with a tentative deal that includes wage increases and, for the first time, pay for boarding passengers.

In the United States, however, the nearly century-old Railway Labor Act makes it far more difficult for union flight attendants like Miller, a member of the Association of Flight Attendants, to strike than most other American workers. Unlike the Boeing factory workers and Hollywood writers and actors who collectively stopped work in recent years, U.S. airline workers can only strike if federal mediators declare an impasse — and even then, the president or Congress can intervene.

For that reason, airline strikes are exceedingly rare. The last major one in the U.S. was over a decade ago by Spirit Airlines pilots, and most attempts since then have failed. American Airlines flight attendants tried in 2023 but were blocked by mediators.

PSA Airlines flight attendants hold placards during a demonstration at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Monday, August 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Without the ultimate bargaining chip, airline labor unions have seen their power eroded in contract talks that now stretch far beyond historical norms, according to Sara Nelson, the international president of the AFA. Negotiations that once took between a year and 18 months now drag on for three years, sometimes more.

“The right to strike is fundamental to collective bargaining, but it has been chipped away,” Nelson said. Her union represents 50,000 attendants, including the ones at United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and PSA Airlines.

On Monday, she joined PSA flight attendants in protest outside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, near where an airliner operated by PSA crashed into the Potomac River in January after colliding with an Army helicopter. All 67 people on the two aircraft were killed, including the plane’s pilot, co-pilot and two flight attendants.

The airline’s flight attendants also demonstrated outside three other U.S. airports. In a statement, PSA called the demonstrations “one of the important ways flight attendants express their desire to get a deal done — and we share the same goal.”

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Flight attendants say their jobs have become more demanding in recent years. Planes are fuller, and faster turnaround times between flights are expected. Customers may see them mostly as uniforms that serve food and beverages, but the many hats attendants juggle include handling in-flight emergencies, deescalating conflicts and managing unruly passengers.

“We have to know how to put out a lithium battery fire while at 30,000 feet, or perform CPR on a passenger who’s had a heart attack. We’re trained to evacuate a plane in 90 seconds, and we’re always the last ones off,” said Becky Black, a PSA flight attendant in Dayton, Ohio, who is part of the union’s negotiating team.

And yet, Black says, their pay hasn’t kept pace.

PSA flight attendants have been bargaining for over two years for better wages and boarding pay. Alaska flight attendants spent just as long in talks before reaching a deal in February. At American, flight attendants began negotiations on a new contract in 2020 but didn’t get one until 2024.

Southwest Airlines attendants pushed even longer — over five years — before winning a new deal last year that delivered an immediate 22% wage hike and annual 3% increases through 2027.

“It was a great relief,” Alison Head, a longtime Southwest flight attendant based in Atlanta, said. “Coming out of COVID, where you saw prices were high and individuals struggling, it really meant something.”

The contract didn’t include boarding pay but secured the industry’s first paid maternity and parental leave, a historic win for the largely female workforce. A mother of two, Head said she returned to work “fairly quickly” after having her first child because she couldn’t afford to stay home.

“Now, new parents don’t have to make that same hard decision,” she said.

Many of her peers at other airlines are still waiting for their new contracts.

At United, attendants rejected a tentative agreement last month, with 71% voting no. The union is now surveying its members to understand why and plans to return to the bargaining table in December.

One major sticking point: boarding pay. While Delta became the first U.S. airline to offer it in 2022 — followed by American and Alaska — many flight attendants still aren’t compensated during what they call the busiest part of their shift.

Back in Virginia Beach, Miller is still trying to make it work. On family vacations during his childhood, Miller said he was fascinated by flight attendants and their ability to make people feel comfortable and safe.

Now he’s got his dream job, but he isn’t sure he can afford to keep doing it.

By WAFAA SHURAFA, SALLY ABOU ALJOUD and MELANIE LIDMAN

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to give final approval Thursday for plans to take over Gaza City, an operation that could start within days. The widening of the 22-month offensive against Hamas appears to be proceeding despite protests in both Israel and the Palestinian enclave.

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Netanyahu was set to meet with top security officials to sign off on the plans, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity. It was unclear whether they would discuss a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators that Hamas says it has accepted.

The Israeli military began calling medical officials and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip to encourage them to evacuate to the south ahead of the expanded operation. The military plans to call up 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more.

Israeli strikes meanwhile killed at least 36 Palestinians across Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals. A renewed offensive could bring even more casualties and displacement to the territory, where the war has already killed tens of thousands and where experts of have warned of imminent famine.

Many Israelis fear it could also doom the remaining 20 or so living hostages taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

Gaza City operation could begin in days

Israeli troops have already begun more limited operations in the city’s Zeitoun neighborhood and the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, areas where they have carried out several previous major operations over the course of the war, only to see combatants later regroup.

The military says it plans to operate in areas where ground troops have not yet entered and where it says Hamas still has military and governing capabilities.

So far, there has been little sign of Palestinians fleeing en masse, as they did when Israel carried out an earlier offensive in Gaza City in the opening weeks of the war. The military says it controls around 75% of Gaza and residents say nowhere in the territory feels safe.

Hundreds gathered for a rare protest in Gaza City on Thursday against the war and Israel’s plans to support the mass relocation Palestinians to other countries.

Women and children held placards reading “Save Gaza” and “Stop the war, stop the savage attack, save us,” against a backdrop of destroyed buildings as Palestinian music played. Unlike in previous protests, there were no expressions of opposition to Hamas.

“We want the war on Gaza to stop. We don’t want to migrate. Twenty-two months … it’s enough. Enough death. Enough destruction,” said Bisan Ghazal, a woman displaced from Gaza City.

Protests in Israel

In Israel, families of some of the 50 hostages still being held in Gaza gathered in Tel Aviv to condemn the expanded operation. Israel believes around 20 hostages are still alive.

“Forty-two hostages were kidnapped alive and murdered in captivity due to military pressure and delay in signing a deal,” said Dalia Cusnir, whose brother-in-law, Eitan Horn, is still being held captive. Eitan’s brother, Iair Horn, was released during a ceasefire earlier this year.

“Enough to sacrifice the hostages. Enough to sacrifice the soldiers, both regular and reservists. Enough to sacrifice the evacuees. Enough to sacrifice the younger generation in the country,” said Bar Goddard, the daughter of Meni Goddard, whose body is being held by Hamas.

Additional protests are planned for Thursday night in Tel Aviv.

Plans for widening the offensive have also sparked international outrage, with many of Israel’s closest Western allies — but not the United States — calling on it to end the war.

“I must reiterate that it is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza, and the unconditional release of all hostages to avoid the massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would inevitably cause,” United Nations chief António Guterres said at a conference in Japan.

Dozens killed across Gaza

At least 36 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 14 who were seeking humanitarian aid, according to local hospitals.

The Israeli military did not have any immediate comment on the strikes but has frequently accused Hamas combatants of hiding among civilians and placing military infrastructure in civilian areas.

Witnesses, health officials and the U.N. human rights office say Israeli forces have killed hundreds of people since May as they headed toward sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor, and in the chaos surrounding U.N. aid convoys, which are frequently attacked by looters and overrun by crowds.

The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces. GHF says there has been almost no violence at the sites themselves, and that its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding.

Israeli strikes destroy evacuated tent camp

Israeli airstrikes also destroyed a tent camp in Deir al-Balah, the only city in Gaza that has been relatively unscathed in the war and where many have sought refuge. Residents said the Israeli military warned them flee shortly before the strikes set the camp ablaze, and there were no reports of casualties.

Families, many with children, could later be seen sifting through the ashes for the belongings they had managed to take with them during earlier evacuations.

Mohammad Kahlout, who had been displaced from northern Gaza, said they were given just five minutes to gather what they could and evacuate. “We are civilians, not terrorists. What did we do, and what did our children do, to be displaced again?”

The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that at least 62,192 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Another two people have died from malnutrition-related causes, bringing the total number of such deaths to 271, including 112 children, the Health Ministry said.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. It does not say whether those killed by Israeli fire are civilians or combatants, but it says around half are women and children. The U.N. and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own.

Hamas started the war when fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas says it will only free the rest in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Abou Aljoud reported from Beirut and Lidman reported from Jerusalem. Mari Yamaguchi contributed from Tokyo.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors are urging a federal judge to quickly reject Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ request that he throw out a jury verdict or order a new trial after a jury convicted the music maven of two prostitution-related charges.

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Prosecutors said in papers filed shortly before midnight Wednesday that Combs masterminded elaborate sexual events for two ex-girlfriends between 2008 and last year that involved hiring male sex workers who sometimes were required to cross multiple state lines to participate.

A jury in July exonerated the Bad Boy Records founder of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that carried the potential penalty of a mandatory 15 years in prison up to life behind bars. But it convicted him of two lesser Mann Act charges that prohibit interstate commerce related to prostitution.

The Mann Act charges each carry a potential penalty of 10 years behind bars. Combs has been denied bail despite his lawyers’ arguments that their client should face little to no additional jail time for the convictions. Prosecutors said he must serve multiple years behind bars.

Combs has been in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his September arrest at a Manhattan hotel. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 3.

Prosecutors wrote that Combs’ attorneys were mistaken when they contended in a submission to the judge late last month that the Mann Act was unduly vague and violates his due process and First Amendment rights.

“Evidence of the defendant’s guilt on the Mann Act counts was overwhelming,” prosecutors wrote.

They noted that the multiday, drug-fueled sexual marathons that Combs demanded of his girlfriends involved hiring male sex workers and facilitating their travel across multiple states for what became known as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”

Prosecutors said he then used video recordings he made of the sexual events to threaten and coerce the girlfriends to continue participating in the sometimes weekly or monthly sexual meetings.

“At trial, there was ample evidence to support the jury’s convictions,” prosecutors said.

They said Combs “masterminded every aspect” of the sexual meetups, paying escorts to travel across the country to participate and directing the sexual activity that took place between the men and his girlfriends “for his own sexual gratification” while sometimes joining in.

Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, an R&B artist who dated Combs from 2008 through 2018, testified during the trial that Combs sometimes demanded the sexual meetups with male escorts every week, often leaving her too exhausted to work on her music career. She said she participated in hundreds of “freak-offs.”

A woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” said she participated in “hotel nights” when she dated Combs from 2021 to last September and that the events sometimes lasted multiple days and required her to have sex with male sex workers, even when she was not well.

Both women testified that Combs had threatened to release videos he made of the encounters as a way of controlling their behavior.

“During these relationships, he asserted substantial control over Ventura and Jane’s lives. Specifically, he controlled and threatened Ventura’s career, controlled her appearance, and paid for most of her living expenses, taking away physical items when she did not do what he wanted,” prosecutors wrote.

“The defendant similarly paid Jane’s $10,000 rent and threatened her that he would stop paying her rent if she did not comply with his demands,” they said.

In their submission requesting acquittal or a new trial, Combs’ lawyers argued that none of the elements normally used for Mann Act convictions, including profiting from sex work or coercion, existed.

“It is undisputed that he had no commercial motive and that all involved were adults,” the lawyers said. “The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily. The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted.”

The lawyers said that Combs, “at most, paid to engage in voyeurism as part of a ‘swingers’ lifestyle” and argued that “does not constitute ‘prostitution’ under a properly limited definition of the statutory term.”