I-85 Highway Collapse Snarls Atlanta-area Traffic

A section of I-85 collapsed as emergency crews were fighting a massive fire on the busy roadway on Thursday. No injuries to motorists or firefighters were reported, but major traffic headaches resulted from the closure of the bridge on the north-south highway. On Friday morning, bumper to bumper gridlock was seen on alternative routes throughout the Atlanta area. “This is about as serious a transportation crisis as we can imagine,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said. About 250,000 cars use the damaged stretch of I-85 each day. Georgia Department of Transportation officials say the section will be closed for the forseeable future. The federal government has pledged to give $10 million for repairs, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Charges Dropped Against Suspect That Wounded Former ANTM Contestant

Prosecutors have dropped murder charges against Jeremy Jones, who was accused of shootings in a Houston apartment complex that killed two and left four others wounded, including  “America’s Next Top Model” former contestant Brandy Rusher. Harris County, Tex., prosecutors say that Jones, 28, was mistakenly identified as the gunman. The murder charge against him was dropped Thursday but he remains jailed on an unrelated charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, the Associated Press reports. His brother, 34-year-old Harvey Jones, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the attack.

Trump to Shell Out $25 to Settle Trump University Lawsuit

A federal judge in San Diego has approved a deal for President Trump to pay $25 million in a lawsuit that has stretched several years over his failed Trump University from customers who said they were promised something from the program that it did not deliver, according to the Associated Press. The settlement concludes two class action lawsuits and a civil lawsuit from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Plaintiffs claimed that Trump University ran infomercial-like programs that pressured people for more money, but never kept promises to teach on how to be successful at real estate.

Zika Vaccine Being Tested on Volunteers for Major Study

Volunteers are being enrolled in a large-scale test of an experimental vaccine to the Zika virus, which has caused birth defects in children in Central and South America through mosquito bites to pregnant women. The first volunteer in the $120 million study was vaccinated Wednesday at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, as the National Institutes of Health gears up for a two-part study that aims to enroll at least 2,400 people in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and five at-risk countries: Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and Peru, the Associated Press reported. It is imperative that public health research continue to work to contain the spread of the virus,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday.