MIAMI — The Latest on Tropical Storm Emily (all times local):
6:15 p.m.
Florida’s Division of Emergency Management says 7,800 homes and business remain without power because of a tropical system, and that they are mostly in Manatee and Hillsborough counties. The number of outages was up to nearly 18,000 in the early afternoon after Tropical Storm Emily began crossing Florida. Emily has since been downgraded to a tropical depression as it makes its way toward the Atlantic coast.
Manatee County has 3,926 outages while Hillsborough stands at 1,362.
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A runner makes her way down Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Monday, July 31, 2017. Tropical Storm Emily began trekking east across the Florida peninsula on Monday, scattering drenching rains amid expectations it would begin weakening in the coming hours on its approach to the Atlantic coast. (Andrew West/The News-Press via AP) ( /Associated Press)
5 p.m.
Emily is a tropical storm no more. The National Hurricane Center says Emily lasted only a few hours as a tropical storm after forming earlier Monday in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida.
As of 5 p.m. EDT Monday, Emily was downgraded to a tropical depression though forecasters say heavy rain is still possible across southeastern Florida as the ill-defined system heads toward the Atlantic coast in coming hours. The Miami-based center says 1 to 2 inches (25-50 mm) of rain are possible in the region, with totals of up to 8 inches (200 mm) possible in some isolated spots.
The storm system was centered Monday afternoon about 30 miles (45 kms) northwest of Sebring in south-central Florida and moving toward the east-northeast at 12 mph (19 kph). The center says the storm’s top winds had dropped to near 35 mph (55 kph) and some additional weakening is possible as Emily moves across the central Florida peninsula overnight.
Forecasters say Emily should enter the Atlantic by Tuesday, with some slow strengthening in the forecast once the storm system is back out over open water.
A tropical storm warning along Florida’s Gulf Coast has been discontinued.
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4 p.m.
The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued two fishermen from Tampa Bay as Tropical Storm Emily hit Florida’s Gulf Coast.
A Coast Guard statement said 47-year-old Tung Le and 41-year-old Thanh Le called 911 Monday morning, saying they were clinging to a range light in the bay after their 17-foot (5-meter) boat sank. The call was transferred to the Coast Guard, which launched a response boat.
The brothers told their rescuers that their engine died. The boat began taking on water, and their pump wasn’t working. They eventually drifted into the range light and hopped on. No injuries were reported.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Alejandro Diaz said in a statement that hurricane season makes it more important than ever for mariners to check the weather forecast before heading out. He said they also should know the limitations of their vessel.
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3 p.m.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott says that about 18,000 homes and businesses are without power due to Tropical Storm Emily.
Scott said during a press briefing in Tallahassee, Florida, on Monday afternoon that most of the outages are in Manatee County, where 10,000 customers are without power.
Scott, who was in Maine on vacation and returned to the state when the advisory changed, said that this was a reminder that severe weather can strike the state at any time.
State emergency management officials also said that the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay has been reopened, after being closed for a time because of gusting winds.
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2 p.m.
Tropical Storm Emily is now headed inland across west-central Florida amid forecasts of heavy rain over the southern and central parts of the peninsula.
At 2 p.m. EDT Monday, Emily was centered about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Tampa and had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph). It is moving at 10 mph (17 kph) to the east and expected to weaken to a tropical depression in the coming hours as it crosses the peninsula and then enters.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Emily, which made landfall south of the mouth of Tampa Bay late Monday morning, is expected to move out into the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s east-central coast on Tuesday morning.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect from Englewood to Bonita Beach.
Forecasters say Emily is expected to dump between 2 to 4 inches (50 to 100 millimeters) of rain between the Tampa bay area and Naples, with isolated amounts up to 8 inches (200 millimeters) in spots. Elsewhere across central and south Florida, 1 to 2 inches (25 to 50 millimeters) of rain are possible.
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11:30 a.m.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott is declaring a state of emergency in 31 counties because of Tropical Storm Emily.
Scott issued the declaration on Monday morning for Emily, which made a late-morning landfall along the coast and is expected to cross the Florida peninsula in coming hours.
Florida has a total of 67 counties. The emergency declaration covers all counties in the central and southern regions of the state.
The emergency declaration makes it easier for state and local officials to respond to the storm. It also triggers certain laws dealing with price-gouging and allows local authorities to use certain state buildings as shelters. The declaration also calls for the activation of the Florida National Guard to help if needed.
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11:15 a.m.
The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Emily has made landfall on the Gulf Coast.
The Miami-based center says Emily reached the coast at Anna Maria Island, just west of Bradenton, Florida, at about 11:10 a.m. EDT Monday.
The storm was about 20 miles (35 kilometers) south of St. Petersburg and has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and is moving to the east at 9 mph (15 kph).
As the ill-defined storm began lumbering ashore, the Florida Highway Patrol closed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay due to high winds from Emily.
Sgt. Steve Gaskins said in an email that the bridge was shut down Monday morning because of winds that were gusting at more than 60 mph (95 kph). He urged motorists to seek alternate routes.
A flood watch is in effect for much of the Tampa area. That means there could be some street flooding in low-lying areas. Law enforcement officials are urging people to be careful while driving in these areas.
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11 a.m.
Tropical Storm Emily is approaching the mouth of Tampa Bay on Florida’s Gulf Coast and heavy rainfall is expected in coming hours as the storm crosses the peninsula.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Emily was centered about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Tampa at 11 a.m. EDT Monday and moving to the east at 9 mph (15 kph). A tropical storm warning is in effect from Anclote River to Bonita Beach on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Forecasters say Emily should dump between 2 to 4 inches of rain through Monday night between the Tampa bay area and Naples, with isolated amounts up to 8 inches possible. Lesser amounts were predicted elsewhere in the region. The center says the storm could spin off a brief tornado or even isolated waterspouts over coastal waters of southwestern Florida.
The storm is expected to move inland and cross the Florida peninsula in coming hours and then move offshore of east-central Florida on the Atlantic coast by Tuesday morning.
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9 a.m.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott will be heading to the state’s Emergency Operations Center to get a briefing on Tropical Storm Emily.
The storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa on Monday morning and is expected to move inland.
Scott said in a news release that residents of the affected areas should remain vigilant as the storm crosses central Florida, brining wind and rain to central and southern Florida.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says the storm’s maximum sustained winds increased to near 45 mph (72 kph) on Monday morning, but the winds are expected to decrease as the system moves inland. It’s expected to cross the state and enter the Atlantic Ocean late Monday or early Tuesday.
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7:50 a.m.
Tropical Storm Emily has formed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of west-central Florida and is expected to move inland across the peninsula.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm’s maximum sustained winds increased Monday morning to near 45 mph (72 kph) but it’s expected to weaken do a tropical depression as it moves inland.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for a section of the Florida coast from the Anclote River to Bonita Beach.
The storm is centered about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west-southwest of Tampa and is moving east near 8 mph (13 kph). It’s expected to bring rain and wind to central and southern Florida.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Arizona’s two Republican senators are making bold moves to combat the incivility and dysfunction that permeates U.S. politics today.
Sen. John McCain, the six-term veteran and former GOP presidential nominee, in both word and deed, struck a blow last week for the bipartisanship and spirit of compromise that once characterized the Senate.
And Sen. Jeff Flake — under pressure from President Trump, the right wing of his own party and the left as he seeks a second term next year — has written a book that promises a “rejection of destructive politics and a return to principle.”
But while the sentiments expressed by McCain on the floor were widely applauded, the prospects of reversing the contentious atmosphere seem bleak, especially if McCain is sidelined by his treatment for brain cancer for an extended period.
“McCain goes back to the mid-1980s, and he remembers the way it used to be, when you really did have a lot of bipartisanship,” said Larry Sabato, a political scientist and director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “That’s gone by the wayside. We’ve been polarized for a long time, but we’ve never been this polarized since the Civil War, thanks to Donald Trump.
“People are really dug in, and I can’t imagine that somehow all of this angst and anger is going to dissolve any time soon.”
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Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, followed by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., center, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., greets Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 25, 2017, as Sen. McCain returned to Capitol Hill to vote in the health bill. Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
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McCain’s office disclosed that the blood clot was associated with a type of brain tumor called glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. On Monday, McCain was set to start what his office described as “a standard post-surgical regimen of targeted radiation and chemotherapy.”
During his dramatic week, McCain delivered a memorable floor speech in which he decried a lack of across-the-aisle cooperation and recalled past statesmen and “giants of American politics” who “knew that however sharp and heartfelt their disputes, however keen their ambitions, they had an obligation to work collaboratively to ensure the Senate discharged its constitutional responsibilities effectively.”
He complained that the Senate is getting nothing done for the American people.
Early Friday morning, McCain joined fellow veteran Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in siding with Senate Democrats to kill the Senate GOP’s ”skinny repeal” and effectively dash Republicans’ immediate hopes to undo the Affordable Care Act.
Though his vote against the “repeal” came as a surprise to some, McCain has been a consistent critic of the health care process — the bills were written behind closed doors outside of the Senate’s normal committee system — and he has urged his colleagues to try it again the right way.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., echoed McCain’s lament about the loss of long-standing Senate traditions and blamed both parties.
“What happens when you erode the traditions, the bipartisanship, the ability to work through the regular order, is that, very simply, that the product that emerges is not very good,” Schumer said during the debate on the bill. “There’s a reason that this body has been the greatest deliberative body in the world. And it’s because it had those traditions, and now we don’t have them.”
Schumer also seemed to acknowledge that perhaps the Democrats made a mistake in 2010 by enacting the Affordable Care Act without GOP help.
“We are the first to admit that the present law needs some changes,” Schumer said. “We are the first to want, maybe having learned our own lessons, that it should be done in a bipartisan and sharing way.”
On Friday, McCain reiterated that he sees path forward to health care reform through reviving the Senate’s “rich history of comity, trust and bipartisanship” from the “partisan rancor and gridlock.”
“The vote last night presents the Senate with an opportunity to start fresh,” McCain said in written statement. “It is now time to return to regular order with input from all of our members — Republicans and Democrats — and bring a bill to the floor of the Senate for amendment and debate. … I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to trust each other, stop the political gamesmanship, and put the health care needs of the American people first. We can do this.”
Flake takes risk with book
Flake’s entry into the discussion is by way of a book that goes on sale Tuesday, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle.
The book takes its title from the late senator Barry Goldwater’s influential 1960 political call-to-arms, The Conscience of a Conservative, in what Flake calls “a homage to Goldwater,” who represented Arizona for five terms in the Senate and was the 1964 Republican presidential nominee.
“At that time, (Goldwater) thought the Republican Party had been compromised by the New Deal and thought the party needed principles to go by,” Flake told The Arizona Republic. “But now I think the party has been compromised by populism and protectionism.”
Populism and protectionism are two words often associated with Trump, whom Flake pointedly refused to endorse or vote for in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump remembers Flake’s lack of loyalty, and there is persistent chatter about Trump and his allies possibly backing a Republican challenger in Flake’s 2018 primary.
“A lot of the book is not just about policy, but it’s about demeanor and comportment,” Flake said.
Flake said he agrees wholeheartedly with McCain’s call for a return to regular order and bipartisan cooperation to solve problems, which he said some of the newer senators have never experienced.
Conservatives can’t just refuse to reach out to Democrats, Flake said, because on some of the biggest problems the nations faces, such as the debt, the deficit, entitlement spending, health care and immigration, one party can’t do it alone. But there is an inability to work together, he said.
One reason is that ideological organizations on both sides keep pressure on elected officials to toe the party line and keep scorecards of their votes on the key issues of interest on the right and the left.
In some cases, these forces will support primary challengers against incumbents who stray too far from orthodoxy.
On Friday, the Tea Party-aligned group FreedomWorks announced it was awarding McCain and other GOP senators a “FreedomFraud Award” for voting to defend Obamacare despite having voted for its repeal in 2015.
“The best example I had, and I mention it in the book, is that I got in the Senate and immediately joined the ‘Gang of Eight,’ ” Flake said. “That’s a problem when people happen to reach across the aisle — it’s called a gang, like it’s illicit activity. That’s where we’ve come, that it’s so unusual.”
The Gang of Eight consisted of four Republicans, including McCain and Flake, and four Democrats, including Schumer, who collaborated on a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
The 2013 legislation sought to balance a pathway to citizenship for millions of people without legal status who had settled in the United States with an unprecedented investment in border security and a modernized visa system. The bill cleared the Senate, but the House didn’t act on it.
The bill went through the committee process, was amended, and then went to the floor.
“That’s what regular order used to be, and that bill passed with a big majority,” Flake said. “That was one of the last examples that we’ve had of that.”
Flake praised McCain for continuing to run the Senate Armed Services Committee, which McCain chairs, in a bipartisan way, saying it is just about the only committee that still works that way.
“It’s largely because of John, because he insists on it, and he’s been around, and he knows regular order and knows the process,” Flake said.
A bigger risk?
Though McCain dominated the headlines after he cast the deciding vote on the “skinny” health care bill, which Flake supported, Flake may be taking the greater political risk with his book.
McCain was safely re-elected in 2016 after having campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
A runner makes her way down Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Monday, July 31, 2017. Tropical Storm Emily began trekking east across the Florida peninsula on Monday, scattering drenching rains amid expectations it would begin weakening in the coming hours on its approach to the Atlantic coast. (Andrew West/The News-Press via AP) ( /Associated Press)
