Newspaper Page Text
LOCA^OP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 25, 2022 3A
Big winter storm brings rolling blackouts, power outages
BY HEATHER
HOLLINGSWORTH
AND JILL BLEED
Associated Press
MISSION, Kan. — Tens
of millions of Americans
endured bone-chilling tem
peratures, blizzard condi
tions, power outages and
canceled holiday gatherings
Friday from a winter storm
that forecasters said was
nearly unprecedented in its
scope, exposing about 60%
of the U.S. population to
some sort of winter weather
advisory or warning.
More than 200 million
people were under an advi
sory or warning on Friday,
the National Weather Ser
vice said. The weather ser
vice’s map “depicts one of
the greatest extents of win
ter weather warnings and
advisories ever,” forecast
ers said.
Power outages have left
about 1.4 million homes
and businesses in the dark,
according to the website
PowerOutage, which tracks
utility reports. Utilities in
Nashville, Memphis and
throughout the Tennes
see Valley said they were
implementing rolling black
outs Friday to conserve
power.
And more than 4,600
flights within, into or out
of the U.S. were canceled
Friday, according to the
tracking site FlightAware,
causing more mayhem as
travelers try to make it
home for the holidays.
“We’ve just got to stay
positive,” said Wendell
Davis, who plays bas
ketball with a team in
France and was waiting at
ALEX K0RMANN I Associated Press
Charles Zajicek uses a power sweeper to clear snow off the sidewalk Thursday, Dec. 22, in downtown Minneapolis.
Temperatures plunged far and fast Thursday as a winter storm formed ahead of Christmas weekend, promising heavy snow,
ice, flooding and powerful winds across a broad swath of the country and complicating holiday travel.
O’Hare in Chicago on Fri
day after a series of flight
cancellations.
The huge storm stretched
from border to border. In
Canada, WestJet canceled
all flights Friday at Toronto
Pearson International Air
port, beginning at 9 a.m. as
meteorologists in the coun
try warned of a potential
once-in-a-decade weather
event.
And in Mexico, migrants
waited near the U.S. border
in unusually cold tempera
tures as they awaited a U.S.
Supreme Court decision on
whether and when to lift
pandemic-era restrictions
that prevent many from
seeking asylum.
Forecasters said a bomb
cyclone — when atmo
spheric pressure drops very
quickly in a strong storm
— had developed near the
Great Lakes, stirring up
blizzard conditions, includ
ing heavy winds and snow.
Crashes have claimed at
least five lives, all involving
motorists. At least one per
son died in a massive pileup
involving at least 50 vehi
cles on the Ohio Turnpike,
the state highway patrol
said. One driver was killed
Thursday in Kansas City,
Missouri, after skidding
into a creek. Three other
people were killed in sepa
rate crashes Wednesday on
icy northern Kansas roads,
the state patrol said.
Michigan also faced a
deluge of crashes, includ
ing one involving nine
semitrailers.
Activists also were rush
ing to get homeless people
out of the cold. Nearly 170
adults and children were
keeping warm early Friday
in Detroit at a shelter and
a warming center that are
designed to hold 100 people.
“This is a lot of extra peo
ple” but it wasn’t an option
to turn anyone away, said
Faith Fowler, the executive
director of Cass Community
Social Services, which runs
both facilities.
In Chicago, Andy Robledo
planned to spend the day
organizing efforts to check
on people without housing
through his nonprofit, Feed
ing People Through Plants.
Robledo and volunteers
build tents modeled on ice
fishing tents, including a
plywood subfloor.
“It’s not a house, it’s not
an apartment, it’s not a
hotel room. But it’s a huge
step up from what they had
before,” Robledo said.
In Portland, Oregon,
nearly 800 people slept at
five emergency shelters on
Thursday night, as home
less outreach teams fanned
out to distributed cold-
weather survival gear.
All bus service was sus
pended in the greater Seat
tle area Friday morning.
And DoorDash suspended
delivery service because
of hazardous conditions in
parts of several states.
The power ceased at
Jaime Sheehan’s Maryland
bakery for about 90 minutes
Friday, shutting off the con
vection oven and stilling the
mixer she needed to make
butter cream.
“Thankfully, all of the
orders that were going
out today already finished
yesterday,” she said a few
moments before the power
returned.
At about the same time,
Corey Newcomb and his
family were entering their
sixth hour without power
at their home in Phenix,
Virginia, a small town
about 93 miles southwest of
Richmond.
“We are coping and that’s
about it,” Newcomb, 50,
said in a Facebook mes
sage to The Associated
Press, adding that he needs
to run a generator because
he has family with health
problems.
In far northern Indiana,
lake-effect snow rolling off
Lake Michigan could boost
storm totals to well over
a foot in some areas, said
Mark Steinwedel, a meteo
rologist with the National
Weather Service in Syra
cuse, Indiana.
“It’s really going to add
up,” he said, predicting
“pretty awful travel.”
The weather service
is forecasting the coldest
Christmas in more than
two decades in Philadel
phia, where school offi
cials shifted classes online
Friday.
Judge kept FTX execs’
plea deals secret to get
founder to United States
BY LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press
NEW YORK — A judge
kept secret that two of Sam
Bankman-Fried’s clos
est associates had turned
against him so the cryp
tocurrency entrepreneur
wouldn’t get spooked and
fight extradition from the
Bahamas, according to
court transcripts made pub
lic Friday.
U.S. prosecutors in New
York waited until Bankman-
Fried, the founder of the
collapsed crypto exchange
FTX, was in FBI custody
before revealing that his
business partners, Carolyn
Ellison and Gary Wang,
had secretly pleaded guilty
to fraud charges and were
cooperating, which can earn
them leniency at sentencing.
U.S. Attorney Damian
Williams announced the
guilty pleas when Bankman-
Fried was in the air late
Wednesday.
Prosecutors had been
concerned that if Bankman-
Fried found out his friends
were cooperating, he might
try to fight extradition from
the Bahamas, where he had
been arrested at the request
of U.S. authorities.
Ellison, 28, and Wang, 29,
entered their guilty pleas
in Manhattan federal court
Monday to charges that
carry a potential penalty of
decades in prison.
At that hearing, Assis
tant U.S. Attorney Dani
elle Sassoon told the judge
prosecutors had expected
Bankman-Fried to con
sent to extradition Monday
before there were “some
hiccups in the Bahamian
courtroom.”
“We’re still expecting
extradition soon, but given
that he has not yet entered
his consent, we think it
could potentially thwart
our law enforcement objec
tives to extradite him if Ms.
Ellison’s cooperation were
disclosed at this time,” Sas
soon told U.S. District Judge
Ronnie Abrams.
The judge got assurance
from Ellison’s lawyer that
there was no objection to the
request before granting it.
“Exposure of cooperation
could hinder law enforce
ment officials’ ability to
continue the ongoing investi
gation and, in addition, may
affect Mr. Bankman-Fried’s
decision to waive extradi
tion in this case,” Abrams
said.
Bankman-Fried, 30,
appeared in court in New
York on Thursday. He was
released on the condition
that he live under house
arrest with his parents in
Palo Alto, California, while
awaiting trial.
The home where he was
staying was protected Fri
day by heightened security,
including a Stanford Univer
sity security guard posted
about 50 yards (46 meters)
from the home to keep pass-
ersby away. The school’s
president lives nearby.
Late Friday, Abrams
recused herself from pre
siding over the case, saying
she had learned that the law
firm Davis Polk & Wardwell
LLP, where her husband is
a partner, had advised FTX
in 2021 and had represented
parties that may be adverse
to FTX and Bankman-Fried
in other proceedings.
She said her husband has
had no involvement in any
of the representations and
she has no knowledge of the
confidential matters, but
decided to recuse herself
“to avoid any possible con
flict, or the appearance of
one.”
Ellison is the former chief
executive of Bankman-
Fried’s cryptocurrency
hedge fund trading firm,
Alameda Research. Wang
co-founded FTX, the crypto
exchange. Both agreed to
testify at Bankman-Fried’s
trial.
They and Bankman-Fried
are accused of defrauding
customers and investors by
illegally diverting massive
sums of customer money
from FTX to make lav
ish real estate purchases,
donate money to politicians
and make risky trades at
Alameda.
In court Monday, Ellison
said since FTX and Alam
eda collapsed in Novem
ber, she has “worked hard
to assist with the recovery
of assets for the benefit of
customers and to cooper
ate with the government’s
investigation.”
“I am truly sorry for what
I did. I knew that it was
wrong. And I want to apolo
gize for my actions to the
affected customers of FTX,
lenders to Alameda and
investors in FTX,” she said,
according to a transcript.
Ellison said she was
aware from 2019 through
2022 that Alameda was
given access to a borrow
ing facility at FTX.com that
allowed Alameda to main
tain negative balances in
various currencies.
During his plea earlier
Monday, Wang said that he
made changes to computer
code to enable the transac
tions with Alameda.
“I knew what I was doing
was wrong,” he said.
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Top and above right top, Men gather Friday, Dec. 23, at the former Set Free Ministry building in Gainesville as Good
News at Noon and other nonprofits and churches are using the building as a temporary homeless shelter during the
dangerous cold snap. Above right bottom, a man reads a book on a cot Friday at the former Set Free Ministry building
in Gainesville. Above left, Good News physician Jim Froehlich tosses a sleeping bag onto a cot Friday at the former Set
Free Ministry building in Gainesville.
HOMELESS
■ Continued from 1A
company to come fix it.
Mike Fisher, street out
reach director for Ninth
District Opportunity, a
nonprofit that serves low-
income families, said the
fastest-growing home
less population is men in
their 50s and older, many
of whom have debilitat
ing injuries, are unable
to work and don’t draw
enough disability money
to afford housing.
Tom LaVigne, 61, who
has been homeless for
two years, was one of the
men who came in Friday
morning on the verge of
hypothermia.
“It’s just too cold.
It doesn’t matter how
many blankets you got,”
he said. “Plus, I’m on a
cane and need my hips
replaced.”
Sevel others expressed
their gratitude and said
things might have been
much worse without the
community’s help.
“I just want to say, any
body that’s been helping
the homeless, thank you
very much,” said Scott
Lester, 55. “This weather
would be killing people if
it weren’t for all the sup
port we’ve been getting.”
“You don’t know what
a relief it is to know
that you have a place to
go,” said Harold Brown,
61. “I’m not sure what I
would have done without
this being available to
me.”