Report: Ghislaine Maxwell Held Secret Meeting at New Prison While Other Inmates Were Locked Down

Ken Silva
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Report: Ghislaine Maxwell Held Secret Meeting at New Prison While Other Inmates Were Locked Down

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report on Saturday about convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell receiving special treatment at the low-security prison camp where she was moved to in July.

According to the Journal, the prison camp in Bryan, Texas locks down other inmates around 8 p.m. so she can shower. Guards escort her to the recreation area for late-night workouts, too.

Once in August, the prison locked down the facility during recreation time so that Maxwell could meet with several unknown visitors in the federal prison camp’s chapel, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

One inmate, Christiane Irwin, a 46-year-old Texas accountant convicted of defrauding a law firm where she worked, spoke to the Journal about Maxwell’s preferential treatment. “Within days, she had been moved to the higher-security Houston Federal Detention Center,” the Journal reported it.

According to the Journal, the Federal Prison Camp Bryan used to have as few as six guards oversee more than six hundred inmates. Guards were typically unarmed.

But after Maxwell’s transfer, the facility now has special operations response teams, or SORT—the BOP’s equivalent of SWAT teams—at the camp’s main entrance and rear gate at all times, due to the heightened security risk she poses, according to the Journal.

There was a shooting outside the facility in August, though police later determined that it was local gang violence unrelated to Maxwell.

Maxwell could be at the facility until 2037 after the Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal earlier this month—though President Donald Trump also said this month that he will “take a look” at possibly pardoning her.

Maxwell’s transfer follows an interview she gave to the Justice Department, in which she reportedly discussed about 100 people who were associated with her and Epstein. In that interview, she said she never saw Trump commit any wrongdoing. She also said she never saw former President Bill Clinton do anything wrong, either.

Maxwell was previously housed in the “honor dorm” of a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida.

Her lawyer said the transfer—which was conducted after Bryan underwent a “deep cleaning”—was due to threats to her safety at the Tallahassee prison.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

$4.5B Awarded in New Contracts to Build ‘Smart Wall’ Along Southwest Border

Headline USA Editor
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$4.5B Awarded in New Contracts to Build ‘Smart Wall’ Along Southwest Border

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Roughly $4.5 billion in contracts have been awarded to expand border wall construction, including adding advanced technological surveillance along the southwest border.

Ten new construction contracts have been awarded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to add hundreds of miles of Smart Wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

“For years, Washington talked about border security but failed to deliver. This President changed that,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said. “The Smart Wall means more miles of barriers, more technology, and more capability for our agents on the ground. This is how you take control of the border.”

Border wall map
Map courtesy of The Center Square

Scott has championed advancing a Smart Wall border security system for years. A border security system is far more than a wall, he has told The Center Square, it’s an ecosystem.

The system encompasses steel and waterborne barriers, patrol roads, lights, cameras, advanced detection technology, including towers and aerostats, to provide Border Patrol agents with a range of tools to detect and interdict illegal activity.

CBP has published an interactive map to educate the public about the Smart Wall system. The map highlights areas of the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border where wall construction has been completed, where border wall panels or waterborne barriers are under construction, where contracts have been awarded for proposed projects in the design phase or early construction, and planned construction areas that haven’t yet been awarded contracts.

Prior to Jan. 20, 2025, 702 miles of existing barriers had been constructed of primary wall and 76 miles of secondary wall, according to CBP data.

The new plan includes implementing barrier technology along 532 miles of the border where no barrier exists because of unfavorable terrain or remote location. It also includes deploying 550 miles of technology throughout previously constructed barriers, CBP says. Specific areas are also being built out in regions where contracts were previously canceled by the Biden administration.

In California, $483.5 million in taxpayer funding was awarded to BCCG Joint Venture for the Diego 1 Project to construct nine miles of new Smart Wall and 52 miles of system attributes in the San Diego Sector.

In California and Arizona, $199.5 million was awarded to Barnard Spencer Joint Venture for the Yuma 1 Project to construct 60 miles of system attributes in the Yuma Sector.

In Arizona, nearly $607 million was awarded to BCCG for the Tucson 1 Project to construct 23 miles of new secondary border wall and 66 miles of system attributes in the Tucson and Yuma sectors.

In New Mexico, $155.1 million was awarded to BCCG for the El Paso 1 Project to replace seven miles of old dilapidated barrier fencing in the Santa Teresa Area of Responsibility with a new Smart Wall. BCCG will also complete 22 miles of system attributes in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico.

Also in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico, Barnard Spencer Joint Venture was awarded nearly $579 million for the El Paso 2 Project to construct 23 miles of new Smart Wall and 81 miles of system attributes.

In the El Paso Sector in far west Texas, BCCG Joint Venture was awarded $850.4 million for the El Paso 3 Project to construct 42 miles of new primary Smart Wall, six miles of new secondary border wall and 46 miles of system attributes.

In Texas, BCCG Joint Venture was awarded $565 million for the Del Rio 1 Project to construct 22 miles of new primary Smart Wall, replace two miles of old barrier wall, and deploy 40 miles of waterborne barrier system in the Eagle Pass Area of Responsibility in the Del Rio Sector.

BCCG was also awarded $96.1 million for the Rio Grande Valley Waterborne Barrier Project to deploy 17 miles of waterborne barrier in the Rio Grande River, south of Brownsville in Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.

Another $550 million worth of contracts was also awarded to support Smart Wall construction. Additional construction and contracts are expected.

Funding for the projects comes from the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which President Donald Trump signed into law. It also includes some fiscal year 2021 border wall appropriations that were frozen during the Biden administration.

Waivers were also issued by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to expedite construction of nine miles in the San Diego Sector and 30 miles in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico. Both sectors were inundated with record high illegal traffic during the Biden administration.

Trump Fires Thousands of Federal Workers Amid Dems’ Shutdown

Luis Cornelio
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Trump Fires Thousands of Federal Workers Amid Dems’ Shutdown

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA)  President Donald Trump has begun slashing federal agencies as Democrats hold federal funding hostage amid negotiations to reopen the government. More than 4,000 federal workers across several agencies are set to be laid off.  

Trump announced the move on Oct. 2 via Truth Social, writing: “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.” 

Russ Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, confirmed the layoffs Friday, tweeting that the Reductions in Force (RIFs) “have begun.” 

Specifically, the layoffs will affect the following departments and workers: Treasury (1,446); Health and Human Services (1,100–1,200 employees); Education (466); Commerce (315); Energy (187); Homeland Security (176); and the Environmental Protection Agency (20–30). 

The Trump administration detailed the mass firings in a court filing in response to a federal judge’s request amid a lawsuit regarding the layoffs. 

Other smaller agencies have also faced cuts, including the obscure Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which saw all its staff fired, according to the Daily Caller. 

As reported by Politico, dozens of CDC officials have also been terminated, including the entire staff from the agency’s Washington office and other workers at the CDC’s Global Health Center and the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. 

Officials in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, Laboratory Leadership Service, Public Health Infrastructure Center and Office of Science were also ousted. 

ICE Arrests Journalist for Throwing Object at Law Enforcement

Luis Cornelio
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ICE Arrests Journalist for Throwing Object at Law Enforcement

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Video footage of federal agents arresting a video producer in Chicago has gone viral, sparking a wide range of reactions online. 

Some on the left claimed federal agents were targeting journalists, while others on the right mocked the woman’s behavior and said the arrest was justified.

Debbie Brockman, a video producer at WGN News’s creative department, was arrested after allegedly throwing an object at federal agents conducting an investigation near an intersection on Chicago’s North Side. 

Bystander video showed Brockman lying on the ground, breathing heavily and appearing shocked, her pants partially down. This scene stunned many on X. 

“What’s your name?” the bystander asked. 

“Debbie Brockman. I work for WGN! Let them know!” Brockman is heard saying, her face turning red while a Border Patrol agent struggled to put a double set of handcuffs on her.

 

In a statement, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Brockman was “arrested for throwing objects at law enforcement.” 

Gregory Bovino, commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, echoed McLaughlin’s remarks in a separate post, sharing a photo of Brockman in the back of a Border Patrol vehicle. 

“Fair and transparent local news stations in Chicago?” Bovino wrote. “Apparently not, as this employee of a local television network decided to take the news cycle to a whole new level by throwing an object at Border Patrol Agents conducting lawful duties.” 

Earlier footage of the altercation showed an object flying toward Border Patrol vehicles. 

Brockman was released without charge. This could change, since assault charges carry a five-year statute of limitations under federal law. 

Some leftist critics claimed her arrest marked an escalation of law enforcement’s force against journalists. However, none of Brockman’s work appears to include field reporting, and at the time of her detention, she carried no camera equipment. 

 

Tim Walz Uses Catholic Church Mass Shooting to Fundraise

Luis Cornelio
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Tim Walz Uses Catholic Church Mass Shooting to Fundraise

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has begun fundraising on gun control following a Catholic church mass shooting that left two dead and dozens injured

Walz issued a plea for donations in an email, using the Aug. 27 tragedy as an example of why he believes tougher gun control laws are needed.

“Every single kid that’s dead from gun violence is a policy failure. I’m tired of Republican politicians refusing to do ANYTHING to tackle this crisis,” Walz wrote in the email, first obtained by Town Hall columnist Dustin Grage.

“I’m calling on Republicans to hold a public vote on banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, because that’s what the majority of Minnesotans want. But instead of taking action, GOP leaders are dragging their feet — and delaying action that would save lives,” Walz added.

At the bottom of the email, Walz asked whether his supporters would “stand with me by chipping in $25, $50, or whatever works for you to show that Minnesotans are ready for action and won’t accept anything less?”

The fundraising appeal came just weeks after Robert “Robin” Westman, a transgender individual, opened fire during a back-to-school Mass at a Minneapolis church on Aug. 27.

The attack left 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel dead, with 26 children and three adults injured.

Senator Urges Rubio to Move Forward Designating Antifa a Foreign Terror Organization

Headline USA Editor
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Senator Urges Rubio to Move Forward Designating Antifa a Foreign Terror Organization

(, The Center Square) President Donald Trump expressed a desire to designate Antifa a foreign terror organization; now, a U.S. senator is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make it happen.

In September, the president officially designated Antifa a domestic terror organization after The Center Square posed the question to Trump in the Oval Office days after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

The president hosted an Antifa roundtable at the White House on Wednesday, where he invited a dozen journalists who the leftist terror group has verbally and physically attacked.

The Center Square asked the president if he would take the designation a step further and move to designate the group a foreign terror organization. Trump responded, “Let’s get it done.”

Rubio, who had briefly joined the room, was asked by the president to “take care of it.”

In an effort to back up Trump’s wishes, U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., sent a letter to Rubio urging him to designate the group an FTO.

Schmitt described the group as being “part of a global system of violent far-left extremists.”

The senator underscored the group’s “coordinated, organized political violence,” while targeting its funding sources, which the administration says it is currently investigating.

“Antifa is active across – and beyond – the West. Antifa cells in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and across Europe often work in direct coordination with one another – linked by a global network, they share funds, coordinate tactics, and mobilize across borders,” the senator wrote.

Schmitt cited a 2023 riot in Atlanta as part of the “Stop Cop City,” where rioters targeted a police training facility. He said authorities discovered the riots were “part of an ‘international group’ – traveling from France, Canada, and other foreign nations to attack police,” including by using Molotov cocktails.

The senator also cited the group’s involvement in a 2017 Hamburg G20 summit uprising that he claims injured nearly 500 police officers.

“Across the globe, Antifa operations are sustained by a web of international organizations, networks, and NGO’s. Groups like the ‘International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund’ brag about bankrolling 800+ Antifa activists across 26 countries,” Schmitt wrote. “European law enforcement agencies have reached the same conclusion. Europol’s 2023 terrorism report notes that left-wing extremists ‘see themselves as part of an international movement,’ coordinating through shared safe houses, operations bases, and cross-border networks.”

Pentagon to Build a Training Facility for Qatari Pilots in Idaho

Headline USA Editor
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Pentagon to Build a Training Facility for Qatari Pilots in Idaho

(Headline USA) The U.S. military is moving forward with plans to build a dedicated facility in Idaho to train pilots from Qatar, an important U.S. ally in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday.

Hegseth, who made the announcement during a visit by Qatar’s defense minister, said the facility to be built at the Mountain Home Air Force Base would “host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase the lethality, interoperability.”

The arrangement is not unusual. Pentagon officials noted that similar facilities have been set up for other allies for decades, and the Idaho base already hosts a fighter squadron from Singapore.

But the news drew a sharp rebuke from close Trump ally and right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who called the plan “an abomination” and accused the Qataris of being associated with Islamic terror organizations.

“No foreign country should have a military base on US soil. Especially Islamic countries,” Loomer wrote in one of several social media posts just hours after Hegseth’s announcement.

Although Loomer holds no formal position within the Trump administration, her online complaints have a history of achieving results. Her criticisms have led to the firing of officials on the National Security Council, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine chief, and Gen. Tim Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency.

Qatar, which hosts the biggest U.S. military base in the Middle East, made clear that it will not have a base on U.S. soil and that it will cover the costs of building the training facility.

“This will not be a Qatari air base,” the spokesman for the embassy in Washington said in a statement posted on X. “Rather, Qatar has made an initial 10-year commitment to construct and maintain a dedicated facility within an existing US air base, intended for advanced training and to enhance interoperability in defending and advancing our shared interests around the world.”

The statement said the project will create hundreds of jobs for Americans and noted that the planning began several years ago and it received local approval.

When asked for more details about the future facility, Hegseth’s office said it had nothing to offer beyond the secretary’s remarks.

The announcement comes just days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to use all measures, including U.S. military action, to defend Qatar.

Loomer also criticized that decision, writing, “I don’t want to die for Qatar. Do you?” on social media. However, she was not alone.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board also questioned the pledge, writing that “this is a decision that can be and should have been debated.”

“Instead it comes out of the blue — an executive order following no public debate,” the board wrote.

The small, gas-rich country played a key role in negotiating the most recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the war in Gaza, as well as in several other key negotiations. Doha, the capital of Qatar, came under surprise attack from Israel last month as members of Hamas were in the city last month to discuss a ceasefire.

Qatar also lavished a $400 million jumbo jet on Trump for use as Air Force One.

However, the Qataris’ connection with U.S. military aviation predates these more recent developments.

In 2020, the U.S. Air Force announced it has signed a deal with Qatar for the sale of more than 35 F-15 fighter jets.

An Air Force environmental study, completed two years later, revealed that Mountain Home Air Force Base was proposing building a facility that would house 12 Qatari F-15 jets and about 300 additional Qatari and U.S. Air Force personnel.

While the U.S. military has a long history of training pilots for allied countries, the practice received scrutiny in 2019 following a deadly mass shooting at Pensacola Naval Air Station that killed three U.S. service members and wounded several others.

The shooter, Mohammad Saeed Al-Shamrani, was a Saudi Air Force officer who was training at the Pensacola base. The FBI said he was linked to the al-Qaida extremist group and had been in contact with it before the shooting.

In the wake of the shooting, the U.S. sent home 21 other Saudi military students after an investigation revealed each had expressed jihadist or anti-American sentiments on social media pages or had “contact with child pornography,” including in internet chat rooms, according to officials at the time. However, the U.S. continued to train Saudi pilots.

Loomer referenced the incident in her social media posts on Friday. “Why are we trying to train more Muslims how to fly planes on US soil? Didn’t we already learn our lesson?” she wrote on social media.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

2024 Was Deadliest Year for Journalists on Record

Headline USA Editor
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2024 Was Deadliest Year for Journalists on Record

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Last year was the deadliest year for journalists on record, with the Gaza Strip being the deadliest location, according to multiple reports.

Totals vary depending on organization reports that don’t evaluate the same countries. However, the conclusions are the same: 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists based on data they have collected over the years.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 124 journalists and those working in the media field were killed last year. That’s the most killed since the CPJ began collecting data 30 years ago, it says. Deaths are categorized as confirmed murders, crossfire/combat and dangerous assignment in its lates report.

The overwhelming majority, 70%, were killed covering the Israel-Palestinian conflict, according to the data. Last year, 82 reporters were killed in Gaza; 78 were killed in 2023 as a result of the conflict, CPJ states. Some have raised concerns about how many reporters in Gaza were connected to Hamas and who actually killed them.

CPJ notes that as global conflicts doubled over the last five years, more journalists covering them were killed. Excluding the Israel-Palestinian conflict, CPJ documented 39 confirmed deaths of journalists and media workers in 16 countries last year. The most confirmed deaths were reported in Sudan and Pakistan, with six each; five in Mexico; four in Syria; three each in Lebanon, Myanmar and Iraq, and two in Haiti.

Journalists’ deaths last year exceeded a record high of 113 who were killed in 2007 – roughly half of them died covering the Iraq war, the CPJ says.

According to a French-based group, Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) (Reporters Without Borders), in 2023 and 2024, more than 145 journalists were killed in countries it tracked.

Fifty-four were killed in 17 countries, with 30% in the Gaza Strip, it said in a recent report. It also argues, “Gaza became the most dangerous region in the world for journalists” last year. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council, as of last month, at least 252 reporters were killed in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel.

“Dying is not an acceptable risk of journalism,” RSF states. It also clarifies, “Journalists do not die, they are killed; they are not in prison, regimes lock them up; they do not disappear, they are kidnapped. These crimes violate international law and too often go unpunished. Journalists are no longer collateral victims but targets, inconvenient witnesses, and even bargaining chips, pawns in a political game.”

At least 550 journalists were detained worldwide in countries RSF analyzed last year. The most were imprisoned in China, Myanmar, Israel, Belarus, Russia, Vietnam, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, it found. This included 298 provisional detentions, 244 imprisonments and eight house arrests, it says.

An additional 55 journalists were held hostage and 95 remain missing, RSF says. Among the missing were 43 “enforced disappearances,” it says.

Top hostage takers were ISIS and Islamic rebel groups in Syria, the RSF analysis found.

In Mexico, five journalists were assassinated in a country where they are “relentlessly persecuted by gangs and armed factions,” RSF said.

According to the independent non-partisan organization, ARTICLE 19, 174 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000, when the group began reporting murder data. The majority were killed during the Felipe Calderón (48), Andrés Manuel López Obrador (47) and Enrique Peña Nieto (48) administrations, it says.

So far, five journalists have been murdered under the current president, Claudia Sheinbaum, it states. It lists confirmed deaths by name, date, location and provides other information, including details on assassinations.

Article 19 advocates for freedom of the press and free expression worldwide. Citing its namesake, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

The reports exclude North America, where Canadian journalists are increasingly being arrested and forcibly detained, and where American journalists are being assaulted and arrested, The Center Square reported.

Last year, the Canadian Association of Journalists demanded that all national, provincial and regional law enforcement agencies “swiftly implement enforceable policies that will prevent journalists from being improperly arrested or detained.” It cites multiple Canadian journalists who were arrested or forcibly detained while reporting in the field.

The Canada Press Freedom Project is also documenting and tracking journalists who are denied access to report on events, arrested and criminally charged, physically attacked, had their equipment destroyed, or were targeted by “chilling statements.”

FBI Says China ‘Targeting’ Mississippi River System

Headline USA Editor
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FBI Says China ‘Targeting’ Mississippi River System

(, The Center Square) In a July meeting with the Louisiana District Export Council, New Orleans FBI agent Benjamin Dreessen gave a number of serious warnings about the threat of China to American trade, including that China is “targeting the Mississippi River system.”

Dreessen warned that China’s five-year plan includes efforts to gain monopolistic control over key global industries by “procuring others’ intellectual property.”

Dreessen said the strategy extends to the United States’ inland waterways and major ports. According to the description of his remarks, Dreessen told council members that Chinese entities are increasingly targeting major ports in southern Louisiana, which serve as the gateway to the rest of the river network and the U.S. interior. Dreesson also mentioned major cities such as St. Louis and Chicago.

The Center Square was unsuccessful prior to publication getting comment from Dreessen.

Trade between New Orleans and China has surged over the past decade, according to data from Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, with cargo tonnage climbing sharply as China became one of the city’s fastest-growing foreign trade partners. Between 2014 and 2023, the state recorded a 387% increase in loaded total 20-foot equivalent units – nearly a fivefold jump in trade volume between New Orleans and China.

According to the minutes, China is seeking to secure access to and control over American supply chains. He cautioned that such economic footholds could be leveraged for political influence, intelligence collection, and potential disruption of U.S. commerce.

More broadly, Dreessen noted that China is “anticipating major conflict with the U.S.,” and is working to interfere with the American military, “induce panic” and “impede decision making in the White House”.

On protecting business from Chinese intellectual property theft, the minutes noted that “not much can be done.”

Lawmakers and federal agencies have increasingly described China’s strategy as one in which the government tightly controls major trade and investment channels. Beijing’s policies often require U.S. firms to partner with state-owned companies and transfer proprietary technology to gain access to Chinese markets – a practice seen in sectors ranging from aerospace to semiconductors.

Examples cited by congressional analysts include U.S. firms partnering with Chinese companies to develop the C-919 passenger jet, state funding for semiconductor manufacturing to reduce dependency on foreign suppliers, and government mandates requiring localization of electric vehicle battery supply chains. China has also expanded control of critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology through overseas acquisitions and state-backed investment.

In the energy sector, Chinese purchases of U.S. liquefied natural gas have at times included related investments in American export terminals – deepening Beijing’s exposure to, and potential influence over, U.S. energy infrastructure.

Officials Still Don’t Know Why Military Munitions Plant Exploded

Headline USA Editor
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Officials Still Don’t Know Why Military Munitions Plant Exploded

(Headline USA) Officials were investigating a blast that leveled an explosives plant in rural Tennessee, as families of the 18 people missing and feared dead waited anxiously Saturday for answers.

The explosion Friday morning at Accurate Energetic Systems, which supplies and researches explosives for the military, scattered debris over at least a half-mile area and was felt by residents more than 15 miles away, said Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis.

Aerial footage showed the company’s hilltop location smoldering and smoky Friday, with just a mass of twisted metal, burned-out shells of cars and an array of debris left behind.

Davis, who described it as one of the worst scenes he’s ever seen, said multiple people were killed. But he declined to say how many, referring to the 18 missing as “souls” because officials were still speaking to family.

“What we need right now is we need our communities to come together and understand that we’ve lost a lot of people,” he said.

Signs near the site on Saturday asked for prayers for the families.

The company’s website says it processes explosives and ammunition at an eight-building facility that sprawls across wooded hills in the Bucksnort area, about 60 miles southwest of Nashville. It’s not immediately known how many people work at the plant or how many were there when the explosion happened.

Davis said investigators are trying to determine what happened and couldn’t say what caused the explosion.

Accurate Energetic Systems, based in nearby McEwen, said in a post on social media on Friday that their “thoughts and prayers” are with the families and community impacted.

“We extend our gratitude to all first responders who continue to work tirelessly under difficult conditions,” the post said.

The company has been awarded numerous military contracts, largely by the U.S. Army and Navy, to supply different types of munitions and explosives, according to public records. The products range from bulk explosives to landmines and small breaching charges, including C4.

When the explosion occurred, residents in Lobelville, a 20-minute drive from the scene, said they felt their homes shake, and some people captured the loud boom of the explosion on their home cameras.

The blast rattled Gentry Stover from his sleep.

“I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,” he told The Associated Press. “I live very close to Accurate and I realized about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee posted on the social platform X that he is monitoring the situation and asked “Tennesseans to join us in prayer for the families impacted by this tragic incident.”

A small group gathered for a vigil Friday night at a nearby park, clutching candles as they prayed for the missing and their families and sang “Amazing Grace.”

The U.S. has a long history of deadly accidents at workplaces, including the Monongah coal mine explosion that killed 362 men and boys in West Virginia in 1907. Several high-profile industrial accidents in the 1960s helped lead President Richard Nixon to sign a law creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration the next year.

In 2019, Accurate Energetic Systems faced several small fines from the U.S. Department of Labor for violations of policies meant to protect workers from exposure to hazardous chemicals, radiation and other irritants, according to citations from OSHA.

In 2014, an explosion occurred at another ammunition facility in the same small community, killing one person and injuring at least three others.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

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