Nation roundup for January 6

Below-zero temps in Midwest, Northeast

CHICAGO (AP) — Snow-covered roads and high winds created treacherous driving Sunday from the Dakotas to Michigan and Missouri as residents braced for the next round of bad weather: dangerously cold temperatures that could break records across much of the nation.

Temperatures were being suppressed by a “polar vortex,” a counterclockwise-rotating pool of cold, dense air that will affect more than half of the continental U.S. throughout Sunday and into Monday and Tuesday, with wind chill warnings stretching from Montana to Alabama. The forecast is extreme: 25 below zero in Fargo, N.D., minus 31 in International Falls, Minn., and 15 below in Indianapolis and Chicago. Wind chills — what it feels like outside when high winds are factored into the temperature — could drop into the negative 50s and 60s. Northeastern Montana was warned Sunday of wind chills up to 59 below zero.

“It’s just a dangerous cold,” National Weather Service meteorologist Butch Dye in Missouri said.

Several Midwestern states were walloped by up to a foot of new snow on Sunday. Five to 9 inches fell in the Chicago area by Sunday afternoon, while the St. Louis area had about a foot of snow and northern Indiana had at least 8 inches. Central Illinois was bracing for 8 to 10 inches, and southern Michigan could see up to 15 inches.

Officials closed several Illinois roadways because of drifting snow, and warned residents to stay inside.

Move considered for Calif. girl on ventilator

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Legal counsel for a California hospital and the family of a 13-year-old girl declared brain dead after sleep apnea surgery began discussing the possibility of moving her to another facility, after a judge laid out the conditions for such a transfer.

The judge said Friday that the mother of the child may remove her from an Oakland hospital if she assumes full responsibility for the consequences. Later Friday, lawyers for Children’s Hospital Oakland and the mother of Jahi McMath emerged from a settlement conference with a federal magistrate offering few details about the daylong talks that followed the developments in state court. But Christopher Dolan, who represents Jahi’s mother, said he was pleased with the progress that was made.

“Today has been about clarity. It’s been about knowing exactly what path we have to walk down, what doors are now open, and what obstacles have been removed,” Dolan said. “We know how to get from here to where we want to be, which is Jahi in another place where she is receiving care.”

It was unknown when the girl might be moved or if she would be, since her family still is trying to finalize where she could be taken and find a medical team to carry out the transfer. A court injunction prohibiting Children’s Hospital from removing the ventilator that has kept Jahi’s heart pumping since her Dec. 9 surgery expires at 5 p.m. Tuesday, and Dolan said the family would work to get her relocated before then.

After spending weeks in a very public and tense fight with the hospital, Jahi’s family does not plan to disclose any more about their plans for her continued care until she is resettled, her uncle, Omari Sealey, told reporters.

New details in Walker accident

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Porsche carrying “Fast &Furious” star Paul Walker may have been going 100 mph or more before it crashed, killing both Walker and the driver, according to a coroner’s report released Friday.

Investigators found no mechanical problems with the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT or debris or other problems on the roadway. The street forms an approximately 1-mile loop amid industrial office parks and is rimmed by hills and isolated from traffic, especially on weekends. The downed light pole the car hit had a speed limit sign of 45 mph. The area in Santa Clarita is about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Roger Rodas, Walker’s friend and financial adviser, was driving the Porsche at an unsafe speed, and witnesses interviewed by deputies estimated it was going 100 mph or more.

No alcohol or drugs were detected in the system of either man on the day of the fiery one-car crash.

The Nov. 30 deaths were ruled accidents and were due to combined traumatic and thermal injuries, the report said. It said both men were burned over 100 percent of their bodies.

Rodas had fourth-degree burns on his head and neck and severe skull fractures, the report said.

Walker had broken bones throughout his body including his jaw, arm, ribs and pelvis, it said.

The car slammed into a tree and a light pole on the driver’s side then after spinning, hit a second tree on Walker’s side of the car and caught fire.

The report says the red Porsche was traveling “at an unsafe speed, approximately 100+ mph,” according to a deputy who took testimony from witnesses at the scene.

“For unknown reasons, the driver lost control of his vehicle,” the report says.

The Sheriff’s Department had previously cited speed as a factor in the crash, but had released no estimate of how fast the Porsche was going.

Sheriff’s investigators are working with Porsche officials and the California Highway Patrol to determine the speed more exactly. Three data recorders survived the crash and fire and may produce information to pinpoint the speed.

Rodas, 38, and Walker, 40, co-owned an auto racing team. Rodas also was a professional driver who competed in 10 Pirelli World Challenge GTS races last year.

The accident occurred while Walker was on a break after shooting about half of “Fast &Furious 7,” whose release Universal Pictures has now delayed for almost a year to April 2015.

Walker still will appear in the film, though Universal has not said exactly how it will handle his unfinished performance.

Also Friday, two men pleaded not guilty to stealing a roof panel of the wrecked Porsche from the tow truck removing it from the accident scene.

Anthony Edward Janow, 25, and James Brooks Witty, 18, were each charged with felony counts of grand theft and misdemeanor counts of destroying evidence and resisting or obstructing a peace officer. They are due to return to court Feb. 25.