Good evening and we begin at 5:0
with significant new developmens
in the horrific crash that killd
7 people on I-5 near Albany.
Police now say a semi truck
driver driving under the influee
caused that deadly collision.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm David Molko.
That driver has been arrested and made
his 1st court appearance a short time ago.
Kyle of O. She's in The Newsroo.
Kyle, what are you learning?
David? That truck driver from California is
facing 7 counts of manslaughter, one for
each person who died in Thursday's crash.
He's also charged with driving under the
influence, reckless driving and assault.
52 year old Lincoln Smith appeared in a
Marion County courtroom this afternoon.
Victims family members also
attended the emotional hearing.
One man sobbed as he shook
hands with a judge.
Police say the truck driver, Sm,
was headed northbound on I-5 near the Santiam
rest stop when he veered off the road.
His semi smashed into a Ford
Econoline van with 11 people in.
The force of the crash pushed
the van into another semi truck.
Smith wasn't hurt but six people
in the van died at the scene.
A 7th person later passed
away at the hospital.
The REC force police to shut down I5 N for
nearly seven hours on Thursday afternoon.
There's no bail in the case.
The truck driver, Smith,
does not appear to have a criminal record,
according to public records.
His next hearing will be later on this month.
All right, Kyle, thank you.
Appreciate that update.
Such a tragedy developing this evening.
Kelso police are investigating
the deaths of three people now.
Details at this point
are few and far between,
but authorities say it has to
do with a call around noon.
About domestic violence and
it's somebody with a gun.
This was at a home a few
blocks West of I5 in the city.
Officers found three dead
when they responded.
We are working to figure
out what happened there.
Police say there is no threat
to the community and they are
not looking for any suspects.
Well,
this evening we may be getting a
little bit closer to what sparked the
massive fire that tore through e
May apartments in Southwest Portland.
That is because today investigas
are flying drones in and around
the charge shell in hopes
of pinpointing the cause.
Our Mike Benner has been
covering the story all week.
Mike,
how's the work going so far?
Yeah. Hey there, David.
The drone operation wrapped
within the last hour and it
seems to have gone pretty well.
The flying conditions were idea.
The man operating those drones f
Fire Chief out of Scappoose was
pretty optimistic that he'd be
able to collect some valuable da
during these flights and hand tt
off to Portland Fire and Rescue.
And I can tell you that is good
news for the people who live in
this building here behind me.
It's been 3 days since Nicholas
Gomez was forced out of his
home at the May Apartments.
More than anything,
the 32 year old and his neighbos
want to know what sparked the fr
alarm fire that torched the more
than 100 year old building. We
just want to get answers.
We just want to know what happe.
We want to know how to move for.
And that may come sooner rather than later,
because on Friday afternoon the
investigation took off. Literal.
Jeff Pritcher of the Scappoose e
District was tasked with flying
drones around and into the buil.
In hopes of pinpointing
the cause of the fire,
Pritcher says the drone will
assist in creating both two and
three-dimensional maps of the s.
Then we're going to do some very
specific photos to help enhance
one of the areas of interest
that the fire investigators hav.
Pritcher did the same thing earr
this year when a fire destroyede
old Korean church in downtown Portland.
This here is what the drone held
generate during that mission,
one that ultimately led to an arson charge.
Pretty wild, isn't it?
Pritcher would say so he'd also
tell you he loves what he does.
In fact, this week and next,
Pritcher is at Powell Butte
Nature Park sharing his passion
and overseeing a program that
teaches aviation professionalis.
Teaches them aeronautical decision making,
Crew Resource Management and Say
Management systems, which are te
pillars of successful aviation program.
If anybody appreciates that,
it's Nicholas Gomez because it'a
successful aviation program that
might very well provide him anss
to the questions he has about
the fire at the May Apartments,
like whether it be negligence oe
way the building was ran or wher
it be arson Like we just we just want
to kind of put this thing to re.
All right, There is a Go
Fund Me for Nicholas Gomez,
as well as many others who lived
in the building behind me.
You can find links to those Go
Fund me's on our website, kgw.c.
In the meantime, there's no
timetable for when we might seee
results of today's drone flight.
Will, of course,
stay on top of it and bring youy
new information as soon as we get it.
For now, David,
I'll send it back to you.
Yeah. Let's hope they get some answers.
Thank you, Mike.
This evening on the story,
the results from a survey
around climate anxiety.
Now it is not a scientific poll,
but a survey KGW put out to understand
how climate change is affecting decisions
you make along with your mental health.
So here is a preview.
More than 85% of respondents say
they were either extremely or vy
worried about climate change.
And here is one response we got quote
I chose not to have kids partly because
what world will be left for the?
I couldn't in good conscience
create life in this environment.
End Quote. That is just one response,
of course.
Environmental reporter Kayle Williams
walks us through the results,
and when an expert found striking about them,
it's coming up at 6:00 on the s.
In national headlines,
negotiations over the US debt lt
are back on this evening after
House Republicans walked away fm
the White House earlier in the .
GOP lawmakers are seeking steep
spending cuts in exchange for
a debt ceiling increase.
Democrats have so far resisted
those proposals,
calling them dead on arrival
and saying they will only hurt
the most vulnerable people.
We've got to get movement by the White House,
and we don't have any movement .
So yeah, we're going to pause
imposing draconian cuts on some of the
most desperate people in this country.
Well, the Treasury is warned Congress
must act, or the US could breace
debt ceiling as soon as June 1s.
Some Democrats are now urging President
Biden to invoke the 14th Amendm,
letting him act alone to
prevent a catastrophic default.
The White House says it is continuing
to work toward a bipartisan solution.
Now, this is far from the first
time the federal government has
grappled with the nation's debt.
But as some of our verified
viewers pointed out,
congressional Republicans had a different
attitude toward raising the debt
limit under former President Tr.
Here's Casey Decker.
We
are potentially just a few weeks away from
the United States defaulting on its debt.
The Treasury Department is runng
out of money to pay the bills
Congress already authorized,
and it needs to borrow more.
But it can't do that unless
Congress raises the debt ceilin.
Republicans who control the House say they
won't vote to do that unless the bill
also comes with severe spending cuts,
a proposal President Biden has rejected.
Verify viewer Andy heard that
when Trump was president,
Republicans lifted the debt ceiling multiple
times without any strings attac.
So let's verify.
Did congressional Republicans vote to
lift the debt ceiling without spending
cuts during the Trump administration?
Our sources are the Treasury Department,
the Congressional Research Serv,
the Bipartisan Policy Center,
the Committee for a Responsible
Federal Budget, and the American
Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara.
The debt ceiling was lifted thre
times when Trump was president,
once in 20/17/18 and 19.
But each time, Congress didn't vote to
raise the limit by a specific amount,
the way they usually do.
Instead, they voted to suspend
the debt ceiling altogether.
This allowed the Treasury
to borrow money at will.
Then, when the suspension was o,
a new ceiling was automatically
installed based on how much the
Treasury borrowed in the interi.
As a result,
the debt ceiling rose by several
trillion dollars during Trump's term.
So did any of those suspensionse
with spending cuts like the ones
Republicans are calling for now?
They didn't.
Some of these budgets included
spending offsets.
But now our sources said they were mostly
budget gimmicks rather than serious cuts,
and they had little
impact on actual spending.
So we can verify,
yes,
during the Trump administration,
congressional Republicans voted
multiple times to lift the debt
ceiling without spending cuts.
Since 1960,
the debt ceiling has been raised 78*
49 times under a Republican president
and 29 times under a Democrat.
With your verify,
I'm Casey Decker
and there you go.
Automakers Hyundai and Kia
have agreed to a $200 million
settlement over a security flaw
that made their cars easy to st.
Class action lawsuit accused the
companies of selling cars withoa
standard feature that prevents e
engine from starting without a .
Now we've reported a more of a
handful of cases in our area.
According to Portland police da,
thefts of Kias and Hyundais in
the city quadrupled last July
when compared to July 2021.
That is in part due to a socalled TikTok
challenge that exposed how to steal them.
The agreement still needs court approval.
Welcome to the weekend and the
Oregon International Air Show is
about to take off in a very big
way at the Hillsborough Airport.
The show is now in its 35th yea.
It has everything from fighter
jets and historic planes to.
Experimental gliders.
It's also going to feature plans
from the biographical war film
Movie Devotion set in the 50s.
They're going to be flown by the same
crew that did stunts in the fil.
Devin Haskins was there this
morning to check it out.
You have a flight tonight
as part of the night show.
I think you were saying about 90
o'clock tonight that that you take off.
Kind of. How is your night show
different than than a day show?
Well, it's dark. And yeah,
we have pyrotechnics and yeah,
so while I'm doing all the
crazy stuff at at night,
all the pyrotechnics are going .
It's a it's a really amazing sh.
Planes and pyrotechnics.
What is not the level. All righ.
Gates open at 6:00 tonight.
The first planes are wheels
up on the runway at 6:30.
The air show runs through Sunday and.