4 charged in death of 5-year-old boy in hyperbaric chamber explosion

(AP) — Four people have been charged in the death of a 5-year-old boy who was killed inside a pressurized oxygen chamber at a medical facility in suburban Detroit. Michigan’s attorney general says Thomas Cooper from Royal Oak, Michigan, was “incinerated” when the hyperbaric chamber exploded in January at the Oxford Center in Troy. The center’s founder, two managers and the operator of the machine were arrested pending Tuesday arraignments on charges including second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. A lawyer for one defendant tells the AP he wants to remind everyone that “this was an accident, not an intentional act.”

NTSB urges ban on some helicopter flights at Washington airport where 67 people died

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal investigators looking for the cause of the January collision between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people recommended a ban on some helicopter flights Tuesday to improve safety, saying the current setup “poses an intolerable risk.” A military helicopter collided with the American Airlines jet as it was approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport over the Potomac River on Jan. 29. Among the victims were 28 members of the figure skating community. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the board determined that the existing separation distance between planes and helicopters at Reagan National Airport is “insufficient and poses an intolerable risk to aviation safety.”

US judge temporarily halts Trump plan to cut millions of dollars for teacher training

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration’s plan to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for teacher training, finding cuts are already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun sided Tuesday with eight states that requested a temporary restraining order. California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin argued the cuts would cost them tens of million of dollars and harm efforts to address the teacher shortage. The grants go to teacher preparation programs, often in subject areas like math, science and special education. The Republican administration says the Education Department was well within its authority to cancel the grants.

US job openings rose to 7.7 million in January

(AP) — U.S. job openings rose at the start of the year, another sign the job market was solid when President Donald Trump returned to the White House. U.S. employers posted 7.7 million vacancies in January, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, up from 7.5 million. The outlook for the labor market is murky as Trump wages a trade war with foreign countries, purges federal workers and threatens to deport millions of immigrants. Layoffs fell slightly in January, and the number of Americans quitting their jobs rose. The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that openings rose in real estate, healthcare, manufacturing and construction firms. Federal government agencies posted 135,000 jobs, down from 138,000 in December.