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Jan. 24, 2026 11:37-12:52 - CSPAN
01:14:52
Washington Journal Washington Journal
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Emergency Conditions Persist 00:11:07
across much of the state.
Significant wintry precipitation is forecast over the weekend with major impacts lingering into early next week as dangerously cold temperatures are forecast.
Light wintry precipitation has already begun across the far western portions of our state, but impacts will be limited until accumulation begins around midday across the mountains.
Mixed wintry precipitation will expand into central and eastern portions of our state by late this afternoon and into the evening hours.
Sleep, freezing rain, and rain will continue through Sunday and into early Monday.
Major impacts from significant ice accumulations are forecast across the southern mountain regions and into portions of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, where three-quarters to over one inch of ice accumulations are expected.
At this time, much of the Piedmont is forecast to receive greater than a quarter inch of ice accumulations.
The greatest snow and sleet accumulations are expected across northern portions of the mountains and the northwest Piedmont, where two to four inches is forecast.
While precipitation may begin as light snow, most of the accumulations will be from sleep.
With cold temperatures settling into the region, any accumulations will linger into early next week and black ice is possible each night.
All North Carolinians should be finalizing plans now and should be prepared to stay home and off the roadways starting later today through early next week.
The state emergency response team, including all of our interagency partners, the private sector, our nonprofit and volunteer agencies, remain activated.
There are 51 local states of emergency, and as Governor said, 21 local emergency operations center activated or are in monitoring status.
We continue to support commodity distribution, and as of this morning, the state emergency response team has distributed approximately 120 pallets of MREs or meals ready to eat and drinking water to assist communities with shelter or warming center operations.
This is in addition to approximately 1,100 cots and blankets to supplement local supplies, as well as the commodities that have been shipped into local communities over the past several months as we work to build local capacity.
Many communities across the state are opening shelter locations or warming stations.
For the most up-to-date information on those resources available in your community, please visit your local government and local emergency management agencies website and social media accounts.
The North Carolina National Guard and the entirety of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol are active and on station today across the state to assist local communities and state partners with clearing roadways, responding to emergencies, and with transportation needs.
95 National Guard force packages are on station and will be assisting with clearing roadways from downed trees, helping disabled motorists, supplementing first responders, and assisting with commodity distribution.
These force packages remain at approximately 454 soldiers, 182 vehicles, and three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
We remain in close coordination with our energy sector partners who are represented here at the State Emergency Operations Center and will be closely monitoring power outage information to quickly assist in restoring power in our communities that may see outages.
The North Carolina Forest Service remains with their resources on station and personnel staged across the state that are ready to assist local first responders with roadway clearing where needed.
Our communications personnel and equipment, as we have discussed in previous days, have been pre-deployed to assist with degradation of the 911 systems, radio systems, and phone or data systems.
If you have an emergency and call 911 and another community's 911 center answers, do not hang up.
Provide them with detailed information about your situation, your location, and they can and will assist you.
As a reminder, 911 should be used for emergencies only.
For general information, please call 211 or follow your local government and emergency management websites and social media accounts.
We will continue to work with the entire state emergency response team, our local and state governments, the private sector, our nonprofit and volunteer agencies, as the forecast continues to evolve to ensure we can support our 11 million North Carolinians.
Finally, as I said yesterday, please check on your friends, your family members, your neighbors, or those in your community who may need additional support this weekend.
We're going to see significant winter storm impacts, and we are stronger and more resilient together.
Thank you, Governor.
I'll now turn it over to Secretary Johnson from NCDOT.
Thank you, Governor and Director Roy.
As we start to see some of the initial waves of this storm in the western part of our state, I want to reiterate what others have said this morning.
Please avoid travel this weekend unless it's absolutely necessary.
By staying off the roads the next few days, you'll not only help keep you and your families safe, you'll help keep our crews, emergency responders, and other personnel safe as they do their important work.
If you choose to drive in the conditions that we anticipate will impact our roads, you are rolling the dice with poor odds.
The risk of crashing in these conditions is high, which can lead to serious injury or being stranded in a disabled vehicle in bitterly cold conditions.
One thing that's important to note in the days ahead is that freezing temperatures will continue to create hazardous conditions on the roads.
Just because precipitation isn't falling doesn't mean it's safe to travel.
If you're traveling by rail, please check Amtrak and NC by Train for updated schedules as many routes are closing ahead of the storm.
Ferry routes may also be impacted due to high winds.
Please check schedules ahead of any travel.
NCDOT crews have been working tirelessly this week on pre-storm preparations.
I'm grateful for all their efforts and for the work they'll do to help clear the roads in the days ahead.
We have crews strategically placed across the state and ready to help with clearing roads, cutting branches, and assisting our utility partners in cases involving damaged power lines.
More than 2,000 DOT employees will be working around the clock the next several days to address storm impacts.
We've poured our full effort into preparing for this event because we aren't taking chances with your safety.
I encourage everyone to stay informed and if at all possible, to stay put throughout the duration of this storm and until it's deemed safe to travel.
People can visit driveandsee.gov to view the latest road conditions and other storm-related information.
Thank you.
I'll turn it back over to Governor Steinford for questions.
Thank you, Secretary Johnson.
If folks have questions, please go to one of the microphones on either side.
And if there are no questions in the room, are there any questions online?
Annie Dance with WCAB News.
You may ask your question.
Hi, I'm Annie Dance.
With the winter storm hitting communities that are still recovering from Hurricane Elene, will the state help with debris cleanup?
And are you concerned about the risk of diseases like measles and emergency shelters?
How is the state addressing that?
I will invite forward the Secretary of Health and Human Services to answer the second question.
We are concerned about the double whammy impact in Western North Carolina.
There are already a lot of downed trees left on the ground from the last storm, Hurricane Aline, and any future trees falling will create more headaches, create more fuel on the ground once we get into wildfire season.
We intend to work closely with our partners at the State Forest Service and the U.S. Forest Service to make sure roadways are cleared, power lines are not impacted, and do everything we can to help people in Western North Carolina get through this with the minimum impact possible.
As it relates to transmittable diseases.
Secretary.
Thank you, Governor.
You know, anytime we have individuals in close quarters, we worry about any kind of communicable disease.
So, we ask that individuals practice those things that we've been talking about for a long time.
If you're sick, keep your distance.
If you happen to touch surfaces or are close to others, wash your hands frequently.
Hand hygiene, keeping your distance are going to be two important things, particularly if you're in close quarters.
Thank you.
Any other questions online?
Annie Dance has another question.
Annie, please go ahead.
Thank you.
Just a quick follow-up about the roads you had mentioned, the Secretary mentioned when Steam stays to travel.
When do you expect that to be?
No, we have to see how heavy a wall-up this storm brings.
The fear is the lingering cold into next week will continue to have real impacts on folks' ability to travel.
If there's an area that's in the shade, if it's a bridge or an overpass where it's not getting ground temperature, those areas tend to stay icy beyond when you would think the ice should be there.
And so, we will, over the course of the coming days, have more information, more guidance for drivers.
Drivenc.gov.
Did I get that correct?
Yes, sir.
Every time I throw out a website, I got to be worried.
Folks should check drivenc.gov for the latest information in their part of the state.
That's the other thing: you might be in the Far East and things actually may be better on Monday, but then you may be up in Boone or Watauga County, and it's still hazardous to drive.
So folks really need to be paying attention to what's going on in their local community.
We have another question online from Jose Sendevil with Blue Ridge Public Radio.
Hey, thank you.
You know, just to ask as well, you know, we're based out of Western North Carolina.
Are there any concerns about losing phone service or phone signal?
Any concerns like that for the region?
We are worried.
We're worried about the impact of the storm on all kinds of infrastructure, whether it's roads and being able to drive, or whether it's phones, being able to talk to each other, whether it's water or wastewater.
So, we're just on our toes, working in conjunction not only at the state level, but with our local partners and with our private sector partners, so that we can be as responsive to whatever hiccups come along the way.
There are no additional questions online Thank you all very much.
Good luck getting through the next couple of days like each other.
These are the kinds of secrets we'd like to expose.
It's nice to be with a member who knows what they're talking about.
You guys did agree to the civility, all right?
He owes my son $10 from a bed for a while.
Law Enforcement Rules Engagement 00:15:00
I never pay for it.
Fork it over.
That's fighting words right there.
Glad I'm not in charge of it.
I'm thrilled to be on the show with him.
There are not shows like this, right?
Incentivizing that relationship.
Ceasefire, Friday nights on C-SPAN.
On this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
Ann Marshall is Associate Professor of History and Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University.
Her book is Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Anti-Slavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform.
Clay lived to be 92, had two wives and 11 children.
Kentucky was his home state.
As an anti-slavery reformer, Cassius Marcellus Clay is often remembered as a knife-wielding rabble-rouser who both inspired and enraged his contemporaries.
Abraham Lincoln made him minister to Russia.
And yes, the boxer Muhammad Ali was originally named after him.
Decided he wanted his own original name.
Ann Marshall will discuss all this with us.
A new interview with author Ann Marshall about her book, Cassius Marcellus Clay, The Life of an Anti-Slavery Slaveholder and a Paradox of American Reform.
BookNotes Plus with our host Brian Lamb is available wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app.
Washington Journal continues.
Welcome back to Washington Journal.
We're joined now by Thaddeus Johnson, Senior Fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice.
Thadd, welcome to the program.
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Indi, great to be here.
Now, your background is in law enforcement.
Can you give us a little bit of an idea of kind of the things that you've done in your career?
Yeah, absolutely.
I worked in the city of Memphis as a law enforcement official.
I worked as a supervisor.
I've trained officers in terrorism, dealing with critical incidents.
I've also trained officers in use of force when it comes to deadly force, firearms, and deadly force and things of that nature.
So I have patrol tactics, official survival.
So I have quite the swath of experience when it comes to law enforcement training law enforcement officers.
Now, before we get into the actions of ICE and the tactics, I wanted to ask you about sanctuary cities because it did come up earlier in the program with some kind of there's some confusion about what that means.
How does a city become designated as a sanctuary city?
And then what does that mean as far as local law enforcement and their interaction with immigration enforcement?
Yes, absolutely.
That's a great question.
And you're right, there is some confusion around it.
You know, sanctuary cities, it's not a single legal status.
It's a political label for a city or county or state that locally adopts policies to limit how much local governments help with federal civil immigration enforcement, especially when you're talking about the day-to-day in policing and jails.
You have most sanctuary policies focused on a few concrete areas, one being limiting compliance with ICE detainers, another being limited when local police ask about immigration status when they're stopping and dealing and interacting with citizens and civilians.
And then they also set rules for when the jail would notify ICE about release dates or share certain information.
And so I think, you know, that's what it does.
And one more thing is important to know what a sanctuary policy is, what they do not do.
They do not stop ICE from operating in the city.
They just mainly limit local participation.
And they also do not make it legal to be undocumented or actually block federal immigration law.
And I'll say this, many sanctuaries jurisdictions, they still cooperate in specific circumstances, whether it's like a serious crimes, warrants, or certain type of investigations.
But that really depends on the local law and policy design.
So what are local police supposed to be doing when it comes to interacting with ICE?
Are they supposed to stand back?
Are they supposed to help?
Are they supposed to be there in case something goes wrong?
How does that work?
Well, there's a couple of ways that this works.
So you have both a formal and an informal pathway.
And so they have this thing called the 287G, these agreements where ICE delegates like limited federal authority, immigration authority to train state and local officers, right?
And there are three main models.
You have the jail enforcement model, and this kind of focuses on people who are already in custody.
So screening and processing and working with local authorities to share the information.
You have the warrant service type of model where it's a little bit narrower, where they have local personnel who are trained to serve as to serve these ICE administrative warrants in custodial sessions.
And then you have the most controversial is going to be the task force model.
And that's what we've kind of been seeing in the streets and what's been making the news as happens during routine policing and counters like traffic stops and things like that.
Now, mind you, that's the formal agreement.
You also have it informally where you have some information sharing.
You also have where ICE will ask for agencies to hold people 48 hours longer than they normally would, just so ICE can come and take them into custody.
You also just have the informal sharing.
The officers on a call, they may be on the same radio connection, sharing cell phones, working together.
They're part of this group where they can work together like that.
If ICE is on a call, perhaps we will have local police pull down to provide security for them to make sure they can do their job without dealing with any protesters or any other types of danger.
So it's not one model.
It works in a few ways.
And again, both formally and informally.
I want to ask you about the shooting of Rene Goode in Minneapolis and what was your initial reaction to that?
How have you thought about it since then?
Yeah, these incidents are really hard because I will say this: you know, even policing, when policing is done entirely correctly, it can look ugly, particularly to the untrained eye.
And so, the first thing when I see an officer involved shooting, the first thing I think about is what were the actions of the officers?
What was the action of the particular citizen?
And so, the first thing, of course, we see is a vehicle.
So, one thing that we train officers is not to walk in front of vehicles, right?
We also train officers when it comes to deadly force to try to remove you away from it and make deadly force the last option.
Now, mind you, sometimes things happen, it's very fast, it's chaotic, it can be fluid, it's emotionally charged, and so things don't play out cleanly oftentimes.
But the main thing I ask is: what was the officer thinking in the moment?
Was he in imminent fear of threat of bodily injury?
All right, and also, what was the purpose of the stop?
Could it have been avoidable?
And this is the thing that I'll say: when we look at these shootings, we often focus on the time that the trigger was pulled, but that didn't happen in the vacuum.
You had to get to that point.
So, did the officer de-escalate?
Did they escalate it?
Was the citizen, what was their intent?
Were they afraid?
Were they trying to injure the officer?
Trying to get a full picture of what's going on.
And oftentimes, when we just focus on the actual shooting itself, that's tend to be where the legal standard comes in of objective reasonableness.
And so, when that happens, it tends to say it doesn't necessarily judge on what happened before we got to the moment of the shooting.
Was the shooting in that moment not hindsight justified?
And so, when you look at a vehicle coming toward an officer, just in general, those are deemed to be legally justified.
However, because things are lawful under the books does not mean that they can not also be awful.
And this is one of those categories there.
And hopefully, this death doesn't go in vain, and this can be a learning experience on how to avoid these situations.
Do we know if DHS ICE has changed their procedure and their rules of engagement as a result of that killing?
I haven't heard anything about it.
And this is the thing: the one thing that has been coming up is about shooting at moving vehicles.
Well, DHS and DOJ, their policies discourage that because of the dangers, because the bullets may ricochet, they may miss their target.
If the driver is hit, that vehicle becomes an unguided missile.
So, it can actually be more dangerous to stop a threat in those moments than to actually try to figure out, do investigation, and find that vehicle and find that person.
So, they're still wearing masks.
All of them still are not wearing body warning cameras.
The training, from what I hear, hasn't changed on the channel of a dime.
And so, it does not appear as if their rules of engagement has changed.
However, their rules of engagement, according to policy, align with many other law enforcement agencies across the U.S.
And NBC News has this headline: Trump's DHS has shot 11 people during immigration enforcement operations since September.
And it says, ICE and border patrol shootings show a pattern that policing experts say is alarming.
Officers firing into cars and injuring and killing drivers.
I also want to show, before I do that, I want to invite people to call in.
If you've got a question about ICE and local law enforcement or state enforcement, that number, the numbers are Democrats 202, 748, 8,000, Republicans, 202, 748, 8001, and Independents 202, 748, 8002.
Thad, I want to show you what the Homeland Security Department has put out as far as numbers go.
This is from January 20th.
ICE and CBP have conducted operations in cities nationwide, resulting in hundreds of thousands of arrests.
70% of those arrested by ICE are convicted criminals or have criminal charges.
During President Trump's first year, ICE arrested 43,305 potential national security risks.
ICE has arrested 1,416 known or suspected terrorists, that's KSTs, and has removed 1,392 KSTs and more than 7,000 gang arrests.
What do you make of those numbers, Thad?
Well, one thing that we know about many people who have been in ICE detention, that the vast majority, they don't have a criminal conviction.
And this is the main thing that I'm talking about when you're talking about transparency.
My thing is, where are the numbers coming from?
These numbers are being reported, but researchers like myself and many other citizens are not able to go on and have a data tool where they can go and pull down for themselves.
So this transparency creates a lot of uncertainty and distrust.
And so with that, you know, it not only delegitimizes the federal government and their authority, but also the local authorities as well.
And so it makes it appear as if the local authorities have no control.
And so I hear these numbers.
I've been fighting in Memphis and other places to try to get my hands on this actual data to see things.
You even heard things in Memphis talking about child trafficking and children actually being rescued and recovered.
I still haven't personally seen the data.
And so the one thing is that I need to see the data.
And some of the things where you're saying that most people have a criminal conviction, that kind of runs counter to some of the information and evidence that I've seen.
I've seen some numbers, whereas in November of 25, that about 74% of people in ICE detention had no criminal conviction.
And you're going to, and if you cast a wide enough net and you're not doing targeted type of enforcement that is shown to increase and improve public safety, you're going to catch some bad characters and actors in there, but you're also going to catch people who are otherwise law-abiding except for their status inside of our country.
And Thad, you wrote an opinion piece for USA Today.
The headline is: almost anyone can be an ICE agent now.
That's a problem.
What do we know about the requirements to be employed by ICE and then once employed, the training process that they go through?
Yes, so the hiring and how you train.
I mean, that sets the standard for your organization.
And so, again, it's kind of behind the black box.
We're being reported things and we're not seeing actual numbers.
We can't see the actual curriculum.
But this is what we know.
We know that they've reduced the age down to 18 from 21 of what it used to be, right?
We know research shows that experience matters, right?
It shows that we have the level of discretion that's used on the street, that more experienced officers use force less, and also more experienced officers are less likely to draw misconduct complaints.
So we know that.
We also know that they're shortened not only their they totally disrupted their Spanish module.
Now, mind you, two-thirds of undocumented people in the U.S. are from Spanish-speaking countries.
And what we've turned to, reduce the five weeks to a translational action, which can be prone to error, and particularly in the heat of the moment, there's not really time for that translation with fear and adrenaline is rushing.
So that can be an escalation point in those moments of just uncertainty and confusion.
We also know that they made some changes to the field training where from reapings that I've seen that is a little bit shorter than what it has been.
Field training officers are a vital part of who an officer will be in the field, a vital part to the type of policing that the public gets.
If you're making changes to that, we don't know what the qualifications are of those people who are in those positions to be field training officers.
Those can be real big issues.
What about the escalation training?
And also, generally, ICE is not trained for the urban policing mission in which it appears and which they're taking on right now.
And so you have oftentimes a mismatch of the training.
And then you're bringing in people who we find that after they're already well into training, that they should not have been eligible in the first place with criminal records from domestic violence to DUIs and things of that nature.
And this is the thing that I was really concerned about.
The cohorts of these lesser trained officers are now hitting the streets as we're talking right now.
MBTA Service Updates 00:15:11
It's probably since November and all of these things.
How will this carry out?
And then you also think about who you're recruiting.
You're recruiting in a very aggressive way with messaging that is very hard-nosed types of enforcement.
And it's going to draw a certain type of people.
And if you don't have the level of public transparency, you have issues with training, and you have a mismatch in mission design and how you're trained.
It's no surprise that many of the issues and the protests that we see right now come on the bear.
All right, let's talk to callers and start with Donna, East Brunswick, New Jersey.
Democrat, you're on with Thad Johnson.
Go ahead, Donna.
Good morning.
Michael, I have a comment.
The ICE agencies, I think they are out of control, especially when they drag people out of the cars.
They're breaking windows.
They're taking people from schooling and things like that.
But I have a question.
Has anyone ever asked Christy No or Steve Miller, has anyone intimidated their family?
Someone needs to ask them that and if they would like if something happened to their family like that because this is unreal.
And another question I have, another comment I have about Miss Good.
The cop should have known if anything was going on, he couldn't shoot a tire out.
He had to shoot her.
I think that's unacceptable.
And then for them not to.
Yep, go ahead, Thod.
Yeah, no, no, thank you, first of all, for those questions.
You make really good points.
So to your first point, when you're asking, if we asked our leaders how they feel about someone treating their family like that, I mean, that's a big reason why reform and policing needs to be with the local authorities.
When the federal authorities partner with local police, there can be great outcomes for the public, and you don't have this mass fear, and you don't have these types of issues.
That's one reason why we want officers to reflect and live in the communities that they police.
And when you have the federal government come in, you need that liaison.
You need that trusted partner in this.
Look, under President Obama, over his years in office, about over 3 million people were deported, right, and process, right?
But it was done in a different way.
So it's not about whether you agree with this or not.
It's about how it's done in a democracy.
And so that's point one.
To point two, how we train police officers.
People say, why are you shooting in the leg?
Why didn't you shoot in the hand?
These things.
Officers are not trained like that.
They're not snipers, right?
We get basic training.
And what we do is we train when there's a deadly threat to go center masks because it's the larger part of the body, right?
Also, when you're under stress, your fine motor skills, they change.
So you may score 100 in qualifications shooting in the paper target in the field.
That accuracy will drop lower and lower if you think about the physiological aspects that's going on.
And we also train for center mass to neutralize the threat simply also because we have to think about our backdrop.
You have to go for the largest target simply because what if you miss and you hit that kid down the street?
You miss and the bullet goes into the church.
And so those are why we train officers in that regard.
We don't train officers generally to shoot tires, to shoot limbs and things of that nature.
So they're just not trained that way.
And I'm not sure if that would be safer or not, but I definitely understand your concern on whether I deal with that.
And Thad, about the officers asking Renee Goode to get out of the car and other people to get out of the car.
Is that what they should have done at that time?
Because there was the argument made that, you know, she's a woman.
These are these three masked armed guys and she was afraid to get out of her car.
What do you think about that?
No, I think that's a very valid point.
You have mass agents.
You have a lot of verbal commands coming along for everybody.
And there's a lot of emotion.
And one thing that I'm often confused about is, you know, why is ICE, why am I seeing ICE involvement and so much traffic enforcement?
They're not a traffic enforcement agency.
And oftentimes you will see this without the support of the local police.
So it's not as if the police are doing it and they're pulling down.
So that's a first big issue.
Like, should that trigger have even been there in the first place?
Should we have even had the interaction?
Why did the individual go and grab her door?
She didn't appear to be a threat.
Didn't appear to seem like she was obstructing.
What it appeared was you could have given a verbal command and could have been gone on the way.
And when you're an officer and you're approaching these vehicles, if the road is icy, if there are different things that may impede how you can respond, you need to be mindful of those particular issues because we are trained on how dangerous vehicles are and we're trained at how dangerous traffic stops can be.
I'm not sure how much training, if that's a big part of a training like local police, of getting traffic enforcement and traffic stops on state and local jurisdictional highways and streets.
I'm not sure if that's really a part of the job, particularly when most of these warrants are administrative warrants.
These are not criminal warrants signed by a judge.
And so I can definitely see why.
And have some feelings that perhaps the traffic enforcement can be those shocking points.
That same officer was dragged by a vehicle a year earlier when you see many of these other shots.
As most of the country is preparing for a massive winter storm, states continue to brief reporters on preparations.
We take you to one now.
Live coverage here on C-SPAN.
I want to remind the public of a few things, okay?
First of all, stay indoors as much as you can.
If you've got to go outdoors, make sure that you don't have any exposed skin.
We're right now down to the single digits, even colder with the wind chill.
And so, you know, really important, stay indoors if you can and cover up if you're outside.
Make sure today that you have everything that you need.
I know our grocery stores are a little jammed right now.
You know, we'll be able to survive a couple of days.
Nonetheless, make sure you've got that milk and whatever you need for necessity for the next 36 hours.
Look, we've got to stay warm.
Fireplaces, wood stoves, space heaters, this stuff's important.
I get it.
But be careful, okay?
Be careful with that stuff.
What we don't want to do is put more strain on our firefighters and first responders, okay?
They're going to be dealing with enough, so let's make sure we take care of those things.
Test your smoke and CO detectors.
Could be a good time to check in on your neighbors.
Make sure everybody around you is squared away with what they need to do the next couple days.
Just a reminder, utilities cannot be shut off during this time.
I have been in touch with all the heads of utilities and crews have been out.
They're staged.
They're ready to go and do what needs doing.
Tomorrow, okay?
Tomorrow, snow's going to start in the morning.
I just ask of you to stay off the roads.
Limit travel if you can, okay?
We know it's going to be a lot of snow.
It's going to mess with visibility.
And we really want you off the roads.
If you have to drive, please use extreme caution, okay?
One of the reasons I talk about driving is see all these guys here?
Not you, not you.
But these guys here, they're all going to be out, okay?
They're going to be out tomorrow.
They're going to be working hard through the night and into Monday.
Do not drive close to a snowplow.
If you see a snowplow ahead of you, get away, back up, wait for them to do what they need to do.
I mean it, okay?
Really important for their safety and for the ability to clear these roads.
We'll keep up with tips and guidance and forecasts of what's happening.
But again, I want to thank all the workers who are out there already and who will be out there the next couple of days.
And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Secretary of Transportation, Philang.
Thank you.
Thank you, Governor.
Yes, you know, it is an important reminder for all the folks.
Stay inside.
Do not go out if you don't have to.
But it is something that we wanted to do here today in the Weston Yard because the men and women behind me have been working around the clock to be prepared for these types of storms.
And that's to ensure safety for everyone.
I also want to thank the men and women at the MBTA as well because both operating agencies have been always preparing equipment, materials, supplies, and the workforce for these types of events.
So if people do need to get out and about, they can do so safely.
I'd like to just give a few updates with regards to MBTA service before I turn it over to Under Secretary Jonathan Gulliver to give updates on the highway system.
This weekend, MBTA is running a regular weekend service.
I do want to remind folks that right now the blue line from Bowdoin to Orion Heights is being replaced with buses and ferries.
And that is to allow us to be able to do important structural inspections in the tunnels.
And also while we're doing that, we are doing track work.
But for the riders that do want to use the blue line tomorrow, they can anticipate that we will restore the blue line tomorrow, early afternoon, because we understand of the storm.
That work is being accelerated so as to be able to put the blue line back into service tomorrow.
Tomorrow afternoon, we also want to remind riders on our Matapan line due to the snow accumulations.
It's likely that those trolleys will be replaced with buses.
And we anticipate the Matipan line will also likely still be replaced with buses on Monday.
And that's because those trolleys have not performed very well in the snow.
Come Monday, we will run a regular weekday schedule across all of the modes, with a few exceptions that I will talk about.
On the commuter rail, we will be running a storm schedule.
And one of the reasons for that is approximately about one-third of our regular weekday schedule.
The reason for that is to minimize switches.
When switches fail, that could tie up the whole system.
And the less switch movements allows us to be able to run a more reliable service.
So expect the commuter rail to be on a storm schedule.
The ferries, the Hingham Hull, Logan, Boston Ferry will be running hourly service.
And the Charlestown Ferry will be running every 30 minutes.
Inner Harbor will also be every 30 minutes.
Our bus service will be running a regular schedule both this weekend and on Monday, but we do want to remind folks that likely they will be routed onto certain snow routes for safety as well.
Those are the important things.
Paratransit will be running regular service weekend, Monday, but due to the weather, I think everyone should anticipate that they may have need more time when you're using paratransit.
So I think first and foremost, as the governor said, stay indoors, don't go out.
Enjoy the Patriots game as we were talking about yesterday, right?
And allow the men and women here at MassDot and MBTA to do what they need to do to keep everyone safe.
If you do go out, give yourself more time.
Check both the MassDot website, check the MBTA website, and then the MBTA Go app for the latest information.
So please be safe, and we look forward to being able to make sure, if you do need to get out, that we get you there safely and we get you home safely.
Thank you.
Great.
Thank you.
And let me turn it over to Under Secretary Jonathan Gulliver now for the highway update.
All right, thank you.
My name is Jonathan Gulliver.
I'm the Under Secretary of Transportation and the State Highway Administrator.
So first off, thank you for coming out to our Weston Depot.
This is one of our critical depots, handles a huge part of the turnpike and connecting highways.
And the men and women that are standing here behind us today do a great job making sure that we're ready.
When the rest of the world isn't joining the 4th of July, these guys are thinking about snow.
So we are very much ready for this storm.
These are the kind of storms that these guys here are really trained for all year round.
We have a lot of stuff on hand to make sure that this is a manageable storm.
We have over 250,000 tons of salt available to us statewide.
We also have 738 gallons of magnesium chloride, which is what we use for pre-treatment and for wetting of that salt to make sure it's effective.
And this team here, as well as our teams across the state, we have 140 snow and ice depots that are going to be handling over 15,000 lane miles of roadway during the peak of this storm.
So let me talk about the storm for a moment just to echo what you've been hearing.
This is going to be a difficult storm, especially in the overnight hours on Monday into Monday morning.
We're expecting very intense snowfall over an inch an hour and we're expecting a lot of drifting, especially early in the storm.
That's especially difficult for our equipment to keep up with.
Anytime you get a snowfall rate of over an inch an hour, it doesn't matter how many plows we have out there.
You can expect slippery conditions and you expect that the roadway is going to be difficult to travel, which is all the more reason why we keep saying that we really want people to stay off the road as much as possible, especially during the peak of this storm.
We will have over 3,000 pieces of equipment, I expect, out during this storm.
That's pretty close to a full call-out for MassDOT.
We usually only see that in the biggest of storms, and this is one.
This is also a long-duration storm, so I do want to remind folks that even once it's over, you can expect that it's going to be about four hours or more for us to be fully cleaned up.
And that includes MassdOT as well as our partners on the municipal side, too.
Those secondary roads can be especially difficult to clear, and it's going to take some time after the snow stops for the roadways to be in safe driving conditions.
So, again, this is one of the reasons why we're really telling people on Monday, especially, we want you to do if you can stay off the roadways, please do it.
Work remotely if you can, but also if you do get out on the roadways, plan ahead.
If you need to be somewhere, a critical appointment, really plan ahead, give yourself a lot of extra time, and really, again, be cautious when you're out there.
I also want to announce we're going to be enacting a truck ban.
That's something that we're going to be providing more details on sometime in the next hour or so.
But effectively, that means that tractor trailers, box trucks, empties, tandem, special permit trucks, some of the bigger pieces of equipment that are on the road that can be especially problematic when it snows.
We're going to be asking them to stand down with the exception of trucks that are delivering food, medical supplies, and fuel.
So, again, more details to follow on that in the next hour or so.
We're getting that information up on our Mass 511 and other trucker websites that they use.
And finally, just want to say again, please be safe.
This is going to be a difficult storm.
If you don't need to be on the roadways, we're really asking you not to be.
Take any discretionary trips well ahead of time.
Stay Safe During The Storm 00:05:57
Get everything that you need to watch the game tomorrow.
Enjoy that game and go Patriots.
We really want this to be successful for everybody.
Our team will be out there hard at work getting those roads clear and safe for you.
We want you to do what you can to make sure it's safe for them while they're out there doing it.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you, Under Secretary Gulliver.
This is not our first rodeo, certainly not for these guys, certainly not for our region.
But nevertheless, we want everybody to do their part.
These guys are doing their part.
We're prepared.
We're ready to go across the state.
We just need everybody's help in following the encouragement to stay out the roads, stay inside.
And remember, if you are on a road, do not drive close to snowplows.
That's for their safety and yours.
The game's on tomorrow.
We know about that.
What do we got behind us?
Isn't this a new?
Oh, Flake May.
Did you do that?
Yeah.
All right.
Flake May's even ready.
So with what's that?
Who's driving Flake May?
We have.
Here we go.
Have you driven it yet?
How's it drive?
Very good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're able to scramble too, huh?
You can run.
This is a truck that can run.
Okay, so we're happy to take any questions.
Governor Neely, are you or any other state officials going to be staying in the meeting bunker due to their extreme weather events tomorrow?
I expect it to be there tomorrow, and I expect there'll be any number of state officials and first responders gathered there to oversee operations.
These guys do a great job.
They know what they're doing, and they're working really hard.
And again, as Governor, I'm really grateful to all the people who won't be watching the Patriots tomorrow, but will be out on the roads, and we'll be making sure that the rest of us stay safe.
Okay.
All right.
Thanks, everybody.
And we'll continue to keep you updated as we learn more and as we have more directions.
Remember, I have said for non-essential state employees, it is a work from home day on Monday.
And I just want to remind our private employers to consider doing that as well.
Thanks, everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, Bill.
Crazy.
Thank you, guys.
Lucky losers.
Yeah, she's this crowd.
You saw it just a minute ago.
That heavily armed vehicle roll up through a dozen people hanging onto the hood.
Now you see, that's your pass.
We're just down window or nothing.
It's enough to just burst this crowd.
I can tell you guys, I can hear your reaction.
That was awkward.
I mean, I just saw a dozen people hanging on the hood of that vehicle in the driving way here.
See the comfort of the local kind of behind Black Shoes Pizza, but you see it's a better thing of this scene.
One thing I want to say to you guys: again, I think it's so important for people to remember if they're watching this.
This is the cultural hub for the city of Minneapolis.
Chemical agents being deployed here.
But this is, you know, you've got a Thai restaurant.
In this intersection, you can get here.
Pop, pop, pop.
I'm not sure if you guys can do it.
My dad can do it.
Pop, pop, pop.
You think you feel comfortable getting over there?
Are you comfortable getting right over there?
Alright.
They've secured the area, so it just happened so fast.
I mean, people have just shown up in the blog.
These are eye wash, these are water bottles, these are earplugs.
Oh, there is in their bag.
Can I grab those?
I appreciate it.
The chemical agents started to walk over us.
We started walking away.
Someone handed me a bottle.
And so the fun something coming back.
The smoke is clearing.
We are starting to see.
There's going to be some moment where they're trying to get any federal agents out of here.
It's not happened yet.
Lieutenant Eric Bicek's Statement 00:03:16
local I I I I I I What do you listen?
What do you go, man?
What do you say?
What do you say?
Alright.
I'll turn it over to theIL agent so again to answer your question, my idea's best.
These are conservation officers here with the state of Minnesota, and we haven't really seen over the course of the last few years.
My name is Lieutenant Eric Bicek with the...
Due to the unlawful conduct and threat to public safety, I hereby declare this an unlawful assembly.
You are in violation of Minnesota Statute 609, unlawful assembly.
I am now issuing a public safety order to disperse and order all those assembled at 26th and Nicholas in the surrounding area to immediately disperse and cease your unlawful behavior, which means leave the area peacefully.
If you do not do so, you may be arrested or subject to other police action.
Other police actions would include the use of chemical agents and the use of less lethal devices or crowd control tactics, which may inflict significant pain or result in serious injury.
The following roads of dispersal are available.
Please disperse to the north of Niglitz, away from the area of 26th and Iglet.
Five Minutes To Disperse 00:10:41
Please do it now.
You have five minutes to disperse.
If you continue to obstruct, resist, or interfere with police officers, you'll be in violation of Minnesota State Statute Signal 9.50, obstructing a legal process, which is an additional crime.
Scott, you can come to us if you want.
We can find Yeah,
we just we were halfway down here and then we got ahead and had a turn.
Jesus, out now ice, out now ice.
Out now ice outputs
y'all.
You're gonna get all your loyals, buddy.
You're protecting somebody who just fucking killed somebody.
You guys feel like lawful doing this.
Do you feel like you're holding yourself up?
No, you're fucking disgusting as them.
You guys are all fucking sick doing your job.
You're protecting somebody.
You just fucking put somebody.
How are you doing your fucking job?
You're not fucking sick, exactly?
You're fucking sick of people putting us there.
Thank you, thank you guys, for somebody.
There's a one more best to know.
All of you, all the fucking people you look at this sign, you realize that they are murders and that's where you're protecting you.
Went to school.
For how long you come in the mountains to protect your people before you're letting us fucking get killed and doing nothing?
You someone, protect them.
You're a fucking fascist, sick.
I don't know how you go home and see them.
They're for the bodies of fans, all for now.
I'm gonna try and find someone I know, I know, for real.
Thank you.
I appreciate how good my people will be.
Scott, I have people here who can talk if you want.
I don't know if they're going to come to me.
That's that conference that's about to start up.
Everybody get closer together!
What are you guys going to do as news?
Are you going to move out?
What's that?
Are you going to say when they do this person?
Are we going to say?
Are you going to like ice out?
Ice out now.
Ice out now.
I saw it.
I saw it.
Ice out.
Ice out.
I'm not, I just I'm out now.
Ice I saw now.
Ice out Ice out now.
What's the way you think of us?
Are they posing here?
Are they posing here?
Do you see that?
Oh no, is that someone from us?
Is that someone from us?
Is that someone from us?
Are you feeling alone?
If it held you down on the street and shot you, you wouldn't know the gallery.
I'm flicking!
You can talk if you need.
Live Coverage Now 00:13:27
They're talking me like the kids and children.
Awesome.
We're about to have a phone before you.
We have live coverage going right now.
Okay, thank you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've never been on the news.
It's uncomfortable for me, but I absolutely take what's your name.
My name is Lance Prudeau.
All right, Adam, thank you.
Scott, let me know when you come to us.
Not more than 20 minutes.
I did hear the dispersal order.
You've been watching live coverage.
We return now to our scheduled program.
We join it in progress.
I am Eastern.
Live Forum Discusses Latest Issues 00:00:10
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